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PREFACE
HIS book
words,
is

a philosophy of religion.

In other

it is

written for thoughtful readers
its

who

wish to examine religion in

relations to the

whole

life

of

man

today.

The keynote
is

of the

book
ophy.
that

is

experience.

My

primary purpose

to

interpret

religious experience rather than to discuss systems of philosI

have a system of

my

own, but
I

I

am

convinced

my

views are not absolute truth.
as as the last

present

them

as

hypotheses to stimulate thought and

stepping stones to
issue.

higher truth, rather than
book, as
or
I

word on any
deity,

The

have

said,

is

a philosophy of religion.

Only God,
could write

someone who confused himself with

the philosophy of religion.

The facts of experience are summarized in the sciences. As a philosophy of religion, this book is an interpretation of science, but is not itself science. The science of religion
gives the facts of everyday religious experience as they ap-

pear to the historian, the psychologist, and the sociologist.

Philosophy in

all its

branches

relies

no organized
by
science.

subject matter apart

upon science and has from the facts set forth

It is

the responsibility of the scientist to gather

the facts for the philosopher to interpret.

Some

philos-

ophers of religion
sciences at length;

deem
I

it

best to repeat the results of the
results

have chosen to condense these

into a single chapter (Chapter II),

of review or of

which serves the purpose orientation (depending on the reader's pre-

viii

PREFACE
This chapter
is

vious studies).

no

substitute for a

thorough
for

study of the sciences themselves; likewise, the sciences of
history, psychology,

and sociology

are

no

substitutes

philosophy.

Yet they are

essential to

it.

So

essential are

they that the ideal student will master them before under-

taking philosophy and will continually go back to them for
rootage in the
soil

of experience.

Certain aspects of religion are investigated by theology,

but

this

book

is

not

a in

theology.

It

is

true

that

some
regard
re-

modern
ligion

theologians

England
of
it.

and

America
as

theology as substantially identical with philosophy of
or
as

a

branch

Yet

theology,

distin-

guished from philosophy,
particular religion
dhist,

starts

with the faith of some
or the Budfaith,

for

example
of
it

—the Christian, the Jewish, — and expounds that
as

sometimes
with

with philosophical objectivity, sometimes with complete
acceptance
divine
revelation.
all

In contrast

theology, philosophy of religion treats

types of religion

and

religious faith as

its

domain, not presupposing the

privileged position of any type, but seeking to discover
religious truths are implied

by the

history, psychology,

what and
in-

sociology of religion.

Philosophy of religion does not

clude a treatment of the peculiar tenets of any faith, but
seeks for the truth in
all.

A book on philosophy of religion should prove helpful in practical living, but it is not a manual of devotion or of Instead, it is an objective and rational interedification.
pretation of experience, perhaps

more

or less "cold-blooded,"

Yet I accept as emotionalists, shy of reason, sometimes say. Kant's principle of the primacy of the practical reason, and
believe that theoretical

knowledge

is

and should be sought
better persons.

primarily for the purpose of
are needed.

making
is

They
and

Knowledge should
life,
if

result in a

deepening of

the devotional

there

any value

in devotion,

PREFACE
should
literally

ix

edify, that

is,

build

up the

spiritual

life.

(But any devotion or edification that lacks a background of
intelligent faith

True devotion must be a by-product of truth. Philosophy deepens and broadens life, gives it a principle of growth, disciplines its excesses, and points it toward the
eternal.

Men

of deepest devotion

—like

Saint Augustine,

Saint

Thomas Aquinas, John
day, Gandhi,
of profound thought.

Calvin, John Wesley, and, in

our

own

Kagawa, and Rufus M. Jones
it

—are
is

men

Religion without thought

like a boat

without a rudder;

should be added that an
also leaves
its

excellent rudder without

any boat

possessor

in a predicament.

This book would have been impossible without the help
of

many former

teachers, present colleagues, students,

and
in-

other friends.

Among

those to

whom

I

am

chiefly

debted for valuable suggestions based on a laborious reading
of

my

entire

manuscript are Professor Arthur E.
a part, Professor

Murphy
which

of the University of Illinois, editor of the series of
this

volume

is

J.

Seelye Bixler of Harvard

University,

Dean Emeritus Albert

C.

Knudson

of Boston

and Dr. Jannette E. Newhall of the Andover Harvard Theological Library. Professor Wayland F. Vaughan, of the department of psychology in Boston University, has rendered valued aid in connection with Chapter XI. Several of my students have given helpful suggestions. Without the criticisms of Mrs. M. G. Baily of Newton
University,

Center as well
Hall, Inc., the

as of the experts associated

with Prentice-

book would be far less accurate, consistent, and artistic than it is. Should there be any error of form or of fact or any unfairness of argument in dealing with naturalistic and antitheistic thought, or with pragmatism, or with phenomenology or realism or theistic absoluform of
this

x

PREFACE
it is

tism or psychology,

my own

fault.

I

shall

have sinned

against the light so generously furnished by specialists in

those fields.
theirs.

My
this

sin

be upon

my own

head, and not

on

Readers of

book

are invited to write to the author (in
its improvement. Edgar Sheffield Brightman

care of the publisher) any suggestions for

Newton Center, Massachusetts

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.

PAGE

Orientation
§i.
§2.

i
.

Empirical method in philosophy of religion

i

Objections to empirical method by apriorists,

§3. §4.
§5.

The

and Barthians method Experience: nonscientific and scientific
logical positivists,
justification of empirical
is

The validity of mechanism The limits of mechanism The evidence for teleology The problem of freedom
mechanism and Purpose and community Purpose and time Purpose and eternity
Relations between
teleology

377 375
381

382

§10.

§11.
§12.

383 384 385
. . .

XIII.

The Problem
§1.

of

Human

Immortality

387

Religious belief in immortality
Belief in immortality as extension of experi-

387
388 389
395

§2.

ence of purpose
§3. §4.

Weak

arguments Crucial argument against immortality: phys-

iological psychology
§5.

Crucial argument for immortality: the goodness of

God

400
404 406

§6. §7. §8.

Immortality and the problem of good-and-evil
Conditional immortality

The

religious value of belief in immortality

409
411 411

XIV.

The Problem
§1.
§2. §3.

of Religious Experience
of experience

Religion as experience

The meaning The meaning

....
.

412
415

of religious experience

§4. §5. §6.

Foundations of religious experience

Development of

religious experience
.

The

validity of religious experience

417 423 436
438
438

XV. Internal
)i.

Criticisms of Religion
critical interpretation

Philosophy of religion as
of religion

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER

xvii

PAGE

XV. Internal
§2.
§3.

Criticisms of Religion (Cont.)

Internal

and external

criticism

439
440

History of religion as a process of internal
criticism

§4.

Religious criticism of the present as disloyal
to

the past

443 444
450

§5.

Religious criticism of the present and past as
disloyal to the ideal

§6.

Religious criticism of the present as disloyal to
spiritual

growth

§7.

Religious criticism of the tendency of religion
to

extremes

452

XVI.

External Criticism of Religion The meaning and value of external §1.
Religion as outgrowth of fear

459
criticism

459 461
464

Religion as a rationalization of desire

.

.

.

Religion as a device in the class struggle

.

Origin as determining meaning and value
Religion as free play of imagination Religion as inconsistent with science
Religious beliefs as unverifiable
§9. .

.

472 476 477 480
485

.

.

.

.

Religion as providing no positive value

.

.

487 490
495
523

Historical Bibliography

General Bibliography
Index and Lexicon

ONE

ORIENTATION
§
i.

Empirical Method in Philosophy of Religion

UR
life.

experience consists of our entire conscious

Religion

is

one phase of experience.
is

Phi-

losophy of religion

the experience of inter-

preting those experiences which

we

call religious

and of relating them

to other experiences, as well as to
as a

our conception of experience

whole.

All the problems

of philosophy of religion concerning faith, worship, tradition,

God,

revelation,

immortality, doubt, skepticism,

or

secularism are stresses and strains within experience.
solution of these problems
tion of experience, for all
tinues,

Any

must always be
Science
is

a reinterpreta-

human knowledge

and ends

in experience.

begins, con : one stage of

philosophy another. Both and philosophy are movements of experience from a state of confusion and contradiction toward a state of order and coherence. Science is such a movement within a limited field; philosophy aims to include and interpret
reinterpretation of experience,
science
all

experience in a comprehensive unity.

§ 2.

Objections to Empirical

Method by

Apriorists,

Logical Positivists, and Barthians

The foregoing
either

statements about experience, which

are

garded in the

fundamental truths or dangerous errors, may be relatter light by at least three groups of thinkers: (i) the apriorists; (2) the logical positivists, and (3) the

2

ORIENTATION
At the very
outset, therefore,
it

Barthians.

is

necessary to

present these three objections to the proposition that religious

knowledge arises in and is tested by experience. 1 According to the apriorists, it is necessary to distinguish between experience and reason. Experience for them consists

of given data, especially those of sensation, of morality,
religious

life. Reason consists of eternal principles which are not derived from experience as defined. Four apples are inferred from sense data, but the truth that 2 2 4 is an eternal, universal, and necessary truth which is derived not from observing apples, but either from the nature of the mind or from pure logic. The reli-

and of

of validity

+ =

gious apriorists hold that faith in
in four apples;
like the
it is

God

is

not like the belief
2

like the truth of 2

-j-

=

4, or, rather,
is

axioms and postulates from which that truth

de-

rived and
true,

which render and hence 2 -j- 2

may

be visible

—in short, they

=

it

certain.
4,

Those

postulates are

no matter how many apples
are true, independent of ex-

perience.

The

apriorist discovers

in logic, in mathematics, in ethics,

seems to endow religious faith
shakable certainty.
2

numerous a priori truths and in religion. He thus with an absolute and unfirst

Now, one who
in this chapter
is

holds the standpoint of the
called

paragraph

an empiricist.

An

empiricist
It is

would

reply to an apriorist

somewhat

as follows:
is

misleading,

he would
1

say, to declare that there

anything independent

and Knudson's VRE.

For a discussion of their views, see A. C. Knudson, in Wilm, SPT, 93-127, (As a rule, references to sources are indicated in this volume by abbreviations which are explained in the Bibliography at the back of the book. The author's name should be consulted.) 2 There are, it is true, wide differences among those who call themselves religious apriorists. The view stated in the text is that of Jakob Friedrich Fries, the Kantian, and was held by Rudolf Otto when he wrote his Philosophy of Religion Based on Kant and Fries (London: Williams and Norgate Ltd., 193 1). Otto says explicitly that every a priori principle rests on judgments "independent of Fries and Otto thus acexperience," the "a priori religious" among them (18).

ORIENTATION
of experience.

3

The

case of the apriorist derives
is

its

force

from the indubitable fact that there tance between four apples and 2 -finsists,
is

a difference in

2

=
is

impor-

4.

The

empiricist

however, that the process of thinking that 2
experience as
is

+2=4
one

as truly a conscious

the process of observtrue of our thought
assertion that

ing four Mcintosh Reds.
part of experience

The same

regarding any axiom or postulate.
is

The

independent of another part of ex-

perience

may
is

be true.

But the assertion that one part of
all

experience
tradictory.

independent of

experience

is

logically con-

The

trouble arises

from using the word

ex-

perience in a restricted

meaning

(as confined to sensations
It
is

or like content) and then forgetting the restriction.
better to

be a thoroughgoing empiricist and define ex-

meaning all that is at any time present in consciousness. Thus the misunderstandings to which apriorism give rise are largely a matter of definition of terms and
perience as
illustrate

the

harm done by inadequate

definition.

The
truth

quality of being independent of experience appertains to

no

truth,

if

experience be defined inclusively.
it is

No

can be said to be unqualifiedly a priori unless
related to all experience in such a

necessarily

way

that

it is

always valid,

no matter what happens.
called a priori unless
it

No

truth about religion can be
all reli-

has a necessary relation to
possible that
this fact

gious experience.
versal

It

is

some

truths are uni-

and necessary; but

cannot be

known

prior

cepted Kant's logical conception of the a priori and differed from him only in asserting the metaphysical objectivity of a priori knowledge. Other apriorists,
like Troeltsch

and Knudson, mean by the
rather than
logically.

religious a priori a native capacity of
it

the soul for religious experience; thus they conceive
sense,

psychologically and, in a

empirically,

so great an emphasis on their faith in

But these writers are often led into the ideal that they sometimes may under-

the spirit in worship and the experience of moral obligation
characteristic

of

religion;

they both

contain factors

which
:;

are not verifiable in sense perception.

You
4.

certainly

This view will be considered more fully

in

Chap. VI,

§

ORIENTATION
the consciousness of "I ought."

5

cannot perceive by any senses either religious adoration or

There
positivist

is,

therefore, a genuine issue

between the

logical
If

and the empiricist

in philosophy of religion.
is

a

thinker has reason to suppose that no fact
unless
it is

truly empirical

a sense experience,
all

he has by

"initial predication"

excluded
the issue.

religious

experience from the possibility of
to truth.
arises

making any contribution
logical positivist regards

This

is

one aspect of
fact

Another aspect
as

from the

that

the

philosophy as confined to the realm
confined to sense experience.

of logic

and science
this,

As

opposed to

a broadly empirical

philosophy aims to

interpret the relations of all kinds of experience to each

some clue to the interrelations of logic, and value experience. If we were to accept logical positivism at the start, it would mean that we regarded the search for such a clue as meaningless and our problem would be solved negatively before we began. To do this would be as unempirical and unphilosophical as it would be to presuppose that the teachings of some particular
other, seeking for

sense experience,

sect or religion are true.

Hence
to

the objection of the logical
it

positivist

need not cause us
4

suspend investigation;

may

well teach us to be precise in our conceptions of experience

and of

verification.

The
pure

rationalistic apriorists seek to protect religion

from the

cruel risks of experience

by elevating
positivists

it

into the realm of
to

reason.

The

logical
it

seek

annihilate

religion

by denying

any standing in experience.

Aprio-

rists and logical positivists agree in rejecting empirical method in philosophy of religion the former because they hold empirical method to be inadequate and the latter

—

4

See A.

J.

Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic
for

(New York: Oxford
positivism.

University

Press,

1936)

an excellent survey of

logical

Stuart

Chase has

popularized a similar standpoint in

The Tyranny

of Words.

6

ORIENTATION
A
third

because their empirical method discloses no religious experience.

group of thinkers, the Barthians, are

even more devastating in their attack, for they hold that
neither reason nor experience can be trusted as a basis for
religious faith.

Continuing and elaborating the tradition of
5

John Calvin (1509-1564), Karl Barth teaches that the only source of salvation is "the Word," or divine revelation. God,
he holds,
is

totally "other"
it

than anything in

this

world,

and
sults

in Barth's opinion

is

sheer idolatry to trust the re-

of reason

as

being the truth.
is

The only

value

of

reason in religion
trusts experience

to

make

revelation clearer.
trusts reason.
as

But he

no more than he
distasteful to

word

religion

is

him,

implying

The very human exalone,

perience and

human

belief rather

than divine revelation

and divine action. He would base his faith on God not on any human thinking or experiencing.
§ 3.

The

Justification of Empirical

Method
made

Here, then, are three formidable attacks on an empirical

philosophy of religion.
start?
Is
it

Have we,

therefore,

a false

necessary to discuss and refute each of these

objections before beginning an investigation of the nature

of religion?

Fortunately, the very nature of empirical

method renders
reli-

any such skirmishes unnecessary.
point of view,

If a

philosophy of

gion were to be written from an a priori or from a Barthian
it

would be necessary

first

to dispose of all
clear.
If

competing methods in order to leave the field logical positivist were to write a philosophy of
5

a

religion,

he

The
of

clearest exposition of his

views

is

in

Karl Barth,

The Doctrine

of the

Word

God (New York:
taught for

Theology and Philosophy.
theologian,

Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936). See the Index under Barth, the most distinguished contemporary Christian
years
in

many

Germany.

He was

expelled

from

that

country in 1935 for his

political

opinions and has since resided in Switzerland.

ORIENTATION
would have
possibly find
perience,
to

7

show at the very start that he could not any objectively valid religious data in ex-

on

his premises, in order to prepare for his solely

negative
trary,

treatment.

An

empirical

does not require that the field
it

method, on the conbe thus cleared of all

opponents, for the reason that
in
its

is

so inclusive

and

liberal

attitude as to find a place for all points of view, all

types of belief,
pirical

and even

all

objections to

itself.

The emsurvey
all

method demands

that the

mind should

facts that
this

have any bearing on the subject in hand; and
theories, too.

piricist

would include all competing will examine experience

A

true
it

emcon-

to find

whether

tains or implies or presupposes

any

a priori principles;

he

will ask the precise
all

meaning

of verification

and

will consider

that the logical positivist has to say, in the light of the

very experiences that positivism challenges; he will grant
to the Barthians that

some experiences claim
their claims.

to be revelations

and he

will

examine
all

In short, the

method

re-

quires that

the data and points of view of rationalistic

apriorism, logical positivism,

be observed and evaluated;
evaluation
of

and Barthianism eventually and experiences which each of these methods
it

also requires observation

would reject or belittle. Accordingly, there seems to be no good reason for declining to try empirical method. It is a fact that religion and religious knowledge (or claims to such knowledge) arise in our conscious experience and are in some way tested by it. To accept this fact is to adopt an empirical method of open-minded inquiry that commits us in advance to no conclusions. At the same time, it is obvious that the apriorist, the logical positivist, and the Barthian are committed in advance, the first to a rationalistic belief in God and religion, the second to skepticism, and
the third to a supernatural religion.
Is
it

not the part of

wisdom

to pursue the liberal

and open-minded path of the

—
;

8

ORIENTATION
This
is

empiricist?

the path of genuine investigation

— as

John Dewey
§ 4.

says, of "inquiry."

Experience: Nonscientific and Scientific
is

Experience

the necessary starting point of any philos-

ophy

of

religion.
It

But what experience and whose exquite in accord with the scientific
to reply to the

perience?

would be

temper of the age
perience as
latter

that the only experience

former question by saying worthy of serious attention is exinvestigated by scientific method, and to the

by asserting that the experience of
is

men

of science

is

the only basis of philosophy of religion.

Ordinary experiit

ence

so confused, inaccurate,

and narrow that
a

is

quite

untrustworthy.

Experience

is

chaos until

it

has been

studied scientifically.

On

the other hand, a quite different answer might be

given to the same question by a truly radical empiricist.

He might
is

say that

it

is

impossible for anyone, even the
Science

greatest scientist, to start with scientific experience.
a

development out of ordinary experience. No scientist begins by being a scientist. He begins by being born as a
baby.
sion"

He

goes through the "blooming, buzzing confu-

which William James made famous; gradually he learns to identify objects and to use language. Thus his experience is enlarged and ordered. A long time later he develops a desire to understand and to control that experience in which hidden forces operate and hidden perils lurk
perils

so great

that they are certain,

sooner or

later,

to

bring to an end the very possibility of further experience in
this

world.

The

desire to understand

and control
Science
is

experi-

ence leads to the growth of science.
leads to experiences of understanding

based on
laws

controlled experiences called experiments or observations;
it

which we

call

laws are applied to the further control of experience

—the

ORIENTATION
mastery of nature, the conquest of
of

9

disease, the attainment

many

ends desired by man.
ac-

A

philosophy of religion, therefore, must take into

count

both

scientific
is

scientific experience

and nonscientific meant experience

experience.
as described

By
and

explained by the sciences.

The

chief sciences of religion

are history of religion, psychology of religion,

and sociology
investi-

of religion; their
II.

main

results will

be considered in Chapter

It

is

necessary, however, for
its

any philosophical

gation to include in

data nonscientific experience.
is

By
ex-

nonscientific experience

meant neither
all
all

unscientific

perience nor poor science, but rather

human

experience

which
desires,

is

not science.
all

It

includes

of our actual everyday

consciousness,

our sense experiences, our feelings and

our imaginations and

many

of our beliefs;

it

in-

cludes

all

of our thoughts, with the exception of those

which

arise in the course of scientific investigation.

Nonscientific experience

is

both more fundamental and
It is

more

inclusive than scientific experience.
it is

more fundaIf

mental, because

the precondition of science.

there

were no nonscientific experience no sensations, no crude guesses about their meaning, no failures to adjust there would be no science. Similarly, if there were no prayer, no worship, no faith, there would be no science of religion. 6 This is what James Bissett Pratt meant when he called religious experience the "goose that laid the golden zgg

—

—

for the psychologists of religion.
is

Nonscientific experience
science.

more fundamental,
purpose,

also, in
is

view of the purpose of
to

knowledge; knowledge for its own sake has intrinsic value and is prized by every truly scientific mind. The pure scientist who exclaims, "Thank God that I have found a truth for which
doubtless,

One

systematize

6 Pratt,

RC, 336.

io

ORIENTATION
is

there

no

possible practical application,"

is

expressing some-

thing of great importance, namely, the insight that the mere knowledge of truth is a delight to the mind, regardless of Even the most practical-minded critic of such a its uses.

pure

scientist will

have to admit that the greatest advances

of science have often occurred as a result of sheer curiosity

and
after

that discoveries

which

at first

were regarded
chief

as

pure

theory were later found to be of great practical value.
all,
is
it

But

must be granted that the

purpose of
ap-

science

not the blissful contemplation of the propositions

of Euclid or of

Riemann;

its

chief purpose lies in

its

plications to experience for the betterment of

human

living,

by banishing disease, building bridges, railroads, aircraft, and ships, and understanding human nature in all of its
manifestations in order to learn

how

to solve the social

and
it

psychological problems of the present.
true, be investigated out of

History may,

is

pure objective interest in the

pageant of
to study

human life; but the drive which impels humanity its own past is ultimately the desire to profit by
Consequently,
is

the past in order to build a better future.
a large part of the
7

aim

of scientific experience

the pro-

duction of better everyday nonscientific experiences for the

common man.

In short, nonscientific experience
scientific, since

is

more

fundamental than
It

the former

is

both subject

matter and goal of the investigations of the
inclusive than scientific.

latter.
is

remains to show that nonscientific experience

more
field

At

first
It

glance this statement ap-

pears like a barren truism.
of exact

seems obvious that the
field of
less

knowledge

is

narrower than the
accurately
is

everyday

experience.
7

What we know

than what

we

This idea

is

related to, although not identical with,

Immanuel Kant's

thesis of

"the primacy of the pure practical reason."

The

speculative reason, according to

Kant, deals with the world of physical phenomena, the practical reason with the

moral
will.

will.

Kant believed

that

all

physical

knowledge was

for the sake of

moral

ORIENTATION
know
inaccurately.

n

However, when one considers the expansion of experience by microscope, by telescope, by excavations, and by scientific means of communication and
transportation, this
is

not so certain.

Yet the significant
It is

meaning
perience

of the greater inclusiveness of nonscientific exis

not to be found in such considerations.

to

be found, rather, by inquiring into the nature of
experience and observing exactly what
it
it

scientific

includes and

what

excludes.

The word
and
all

"scientific"

is

often

applied loosely to any

attempts to systematize experience.

Thus

astrology,

phrenology, and Fichtean metaphysics have been called
called sciences;
aesthetics, and theology are often and there is Christian Science. So broad If we a use of the term is not usual in scientific circles. with scientific usage, we are to be precise and in harmony should define science not as any and every attempt to systematize knowledge, but rather as a description of the laws of the behavior of objects disclosed by some particular field

science;

logic,

ethics,

of experience.

Physics, for example,

is

a description of the

laws of matter in motion; chemistry, a description of the
laws of the composition and transformations of substances.

Now,
But

all strictly scientific

experience

is

descriptive;

it

tells

what laws the facts conform. more than describe the facts. It is inquisitive, and seeks to find out what the facts are good for, what they are worth, what we should do about them. This experience of good or worth or "should" is
facts

what the

are

and

to

human

experience does

commonly

called

the

experience

of

value.

Psychology,

anthropology, sociology, and history, as descriptive sciences,
take account of the value experiences of
scribe

what
is

this

man

values,

man. They dewhat another; what is valued

by

this

there

group or that group, this nation or that nation. Yet nothing within these sciences that would enable

12

ORIENTATION
is

the scientist to say that one value or set of values

better

than another.
nonscientific
better

Scientific

experience

is

purely descriptive;
statements

experience contains
It is

many

about

and worse.

better to live than to die, better to
it,

enjoy beauty than to ignore

better to live happily than

unhappily, better to be honest than dishonest, better to listen
to a

symphony than

to the tunes of a popular

dance or-

chestra.

Nonscientific

experience

is

accordingly more inclusive

than

scientific

because

it

asks such questions as:

better to
is

do?

What

is

right?

What

is

beautiful?

What is What

holy?

— questions
Many

not merely about

facts,

but about the

values of facts.

Description specifies what the facts are;

evaluation

determines what they are worth.
all
s

From

the
is

point of view of the descriptive sciences,
nonscientific.

evaluation

think that, on the basis of the de-

scriptive sciences,

normative sciences

may
of

yield

normative laws

— statements

be built up which what ought to be.

Such normative sciences might be
preciate),
logic

ethics (laws of

ought to choose), aesthetics (laws of
(laws of

how we how we ought to apthink),

philosophy of religion (laws of
beautiful, the true,

how we ought to how we ought

and

to worship).

Thus we should have normative

sciences of the good, the

and the holy. But there is considerable difference of opinion about whether a normative science should be called a science or a branch of philosophy, and also as to whether "normative" sciences (especially logic) constitute a kind of description. Perhaps the normative
sciences belong in scientific experience; perhaps they belong
in

nonscientific

experience.

Wherever

they

are

to

be

classified,

they

call attention to

the value experiences about

which descriptive science gives no standards for judging.
8

Including the author.

See Brightman,

ML, Chap.

I.

ORIENTATION
At any
rate, their

13

data

—our
One

daily evaluations

—

raise ques-

tions that lie

beyond the

field of

mere
is

description.

Everyday nonscientific experience by
interest in values.

largely
is

dominated
It is

experience

preferred to an-

other; certain objects are desired
in this realm that all our

and others avoided.

moral choices, our aesthetic enreligious worship fall. The experience joyments, and our of goodness is nonscientific; psychology and sociology may describe phenomena of goodness and ethics may evaluate
the

phenomena; but an
any science

actual choice

a part of

—

it is

the reality

by a good will is not which makes a science
is

of goodness possible.

In the field of religion, prayer

not

a psychological description of

something or a sociological
it

theory or a philosophical theory;

is

the actual experience

of "the soul's sincere desire" directed toward
to

what

is

believed

be the Supreme Being and the Supreme Value in the
Nonscientific experience contains the actual
of value

universe.
life

and

raises questions

about the meaning and importance of

value which descriptive science does not raise.
religion lives. religion
It is

This

is

where

here that every student of nature or of
his investigations.

must begin
§
5.

What

is

Religion?

A philosophy of religion
gion,

is itself

an attempt

to define reli-

and an adequate definition of religion must be the
It

product of an adequate investigation.

might, therefore,

seem to be excusable (as well as conventional) to postpone any attempt to define it until the investigation is completed. But this would really be a piece of academic hypocrisy. Two
facts

show
It is

the value of a tentative definition at the

start.
is

(1)

necessary to have

some idea

of

what

religion
if

in

order to select any subject matter for investigation;

we have
facts to

no idea of what we are investigating, we have no

i4

ORIENTATION
(2) Every definition of a real object
is

investigate.

an hydefiniis

pothesis, subject to correction.

Thus, the preliminary

tion of religion will be genuinely tentative; indeed, there

no such thing

as a final definition of religion unless all facts

about religion are

known and

these facts are

all

correctly

and completely

man's definition of a physical thing has changed from Democritus to Planck and
interpreted.
Just as

Einstein, so definitions of religion change.

In approaching the task of defining religion, the student
is

easily

duped by the seeming

certainty

and authority

of

his

own
of

personal or social experiences.

In a nonscientific
at stake,

realm like religion, where values are
life

emotion and desire

is

involved, and

where the where the mores
natural to say:

of family, church, synagogue, party, or clique prescribe a
particular kind of faith or unfaith,
it

is

what I and my group have experienced religion Such experience is indeed the necessary starting to be." point for any study of religion, but a little reflection will show why it cannot be a stopping place. No one can rightly
"Religion
is

say:
false

"A

belief
I

is

true because

it is

because

doubt them."
is

mine; contrary beliefs are Nor can anyone rightly say:
it is

"Our group
false

belief

true because

ours; other beliefs are
If this

because our group rejects them."

were done,

"truth"

would become

a meaningless chaos.

The seeming
is

authority of the individual's

own

experience and that of his

group must always submit
larger experience.
It is

to the light that

shed by a

only

when

personal and group ex-

perience has been examined in the light of the whole range
of

for estimating the

knowable experience that one has the materials at hand meaning and value of one's own exIn religion, as in
all

perience.

other

fields,

the observation

of one person

must be supplemented by the observations
if

of countless others

truth

is

to be found.

The

definition of religion with

which philosophy may

,

ORIENTATION
of

15

start

should, therefore, be one which notes not merely the
the
definer's
all

characteristics

own

religion,

but rather

which are common to experience what they regard
those

persons and groups

who

as religion.
is,

This description
should be quite
it

should be purely descriptive; that

it

neutral to the normative question whether religion as

has been bears any resemblance to religion as

it

ought

to be.
all

A
of

proper descriptive definition, then,

is

neutral to

in-

quiries

on whether religion
or veridical.

is

true or false, helpful or

harm-

ful, illusory

It

will contain solely a concept
like

what

religion has actually been, and,

any good
all

definition, will distinguish the

definiendum from

other

might be confused. Thus a definition of religion will distinguish religion from science, from philosophy, from morals, from art, and from all nonreligious personal and social experiences. Such are the qualifications of a satisfactory descriptive definition of religion. Can a definition be furnished which will conform to the specifications? It must be said at once
terms with which
it

that a bewildering variety of contradictory definitions of

by authorities in the field. A sample list of such definitions is found in the twenty-onepage Appendix to J. H. Leuba's A Psychological Study of Religion, which is analyzed and criticized in a chapter
religion has been set forth
entitled, "Constructive Criticism of

Current Conceptions of

Religion."

A

textbook (Vergilius Ferm's First Chapters in

Religious Philosophy) devotes seventy-one pages to a discussion of the definition of religion.

grown and movements now developing within them. The variety of beliefs and practices thus designated as religious might seem to defy all definition. One can understand why defiexperiences out of which these religions have
the
nitions have been widely divergent.

Doubtless every defini-

tion that has been proposed

is

either a correct description

Tr. from

UR,

56.

"The common element

in all expressions of religion

[Fromall

migfeit], no matter
feelings, the

how

different,

whereby they are distinguished from

other

permanently identical essence of religion, is that we are conscious of ourselves as absolutely dependent or, to say the same thing in other words, we are conscious of being in relation with God." Tr. from CG, I. 15, sec. 4. Ludwig Feuerbach: "Man is the beginning of religion, man is the center of religion, man is the end of religion." Tr. from WC, Kap. 19. Salomon Reinach: "I propose to define religion as: A sum of scruples which impede the free exercise of our faculties." ORP, 3. Harald Hoffding: "That which expresses the innermost tendency of all religions is the axiom of the conservation of values." PR, 215. William James: "Religion [means] the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." VRE, 31. (Cf. A. N. Whitehead: "Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness."
.

.

.

RM,

16.)

V. F. Calverton: "Magic and religion evolved as (a) means whereby (man) believed he was able to acquire power (over his environment) and make
.

.

.

the universe bend to his wishes."

PG,

51.
is

John Dewey: "Whatever introduces genuine perspective

religious."

CF, 24.
. .
.

"The

religious attitude (is) a sense of the possibilities of existence

and

devo-

tion to the cause of these possibilities."

QC, 303.
single experi-

W.

E.

Hocking: "Religion ...
progression.
is

is

the present attainment in a

ence of those objects which in the course of nature are reached only at the end of
infinite

Religion

is

anticipated
life

attainment."

MGHE,

31.

"Reli-

gion

...

the habitual reference of
religious

to

divine powers."

TP, 26.

Vergilius

Ferm: "To be

is to effect in

a vital adjustment (however tentative
to or

regarded implicitly or explicitly
61.

some way and in some measure and incomplete) to w(W)hatever is reacted as worthy of serious and ulterior concern."

FCRP,

ORIENTATION
of
religion

17

of certain aspects of religion or at least an honest evaluation

by the definer

(even

when Reinach oddly
which hinder the
free

brands religion as a

sum

of scruples

exercise of our powers).
If

the student examines

all

religions empirically with a

view
lives

to picking out their essential
in

common

traits,

one

who

a Judaeo-Christian civilization

must be prepared

to

admit that some of the most

essential features of Chris-

tianity

(such as faith in Jesus Christ) are larking from

Judaism; and that the belief in a conscious, personal God,

common
religious

to

most forms of Judaism and Christianity,
Immortality
such
is

is

lacking from Hinayana Buddhism, as well as from American

humanism.

doubted or rejected
all

by

many

religious believers.

Nevertheless,

kinds of

reli-

gion have in

common
is

traits as to

warrant the following

definition: Religion

concern about experiences which are

regarded as of supreme value; devotion toward a power or powers believed to originate, increase, and conserve these
values;
votion,

and some

suitable expression of this concern
rites

and

de-

whether through symbolic

or through other in-

dividual

and social conduct. Religion, then, is a total experience which includes this concern, this devotion, and this
expression.
It

always involves a

set of beliefs

about reality

in addition to attitudes

and

practices of various sorts.

Religion differs from magic in being devotion to the

power
from

that

is

the source of values, whereas magic

is

a

kind

of mechanical

compulsion of that power.
facts

Religion differs

science in being concerned about values, while science
its

ignores the value of
description.

and confines

itself to

objective

Religion resembles morals and art in being

concerned with values, but differs from them in its primary devotion to the power or powers that originate the supreme
value of
life, as

well as in the use of ritual for
definition
is

its

expression.

The proposed

to be treated solely as descrip-

18

ORIENTATION
It
is

tive.

an heuristic hypothesis that will enable the
It is

student of religion to select his data.
express any
It is

not intended to
of religion.
facts.

judgment about the truth or value
as the

simply a guide to the discovery of religious

A

normative definition can be sought only
a philosophy of religion.
§ 6.

outcome of

Science of Religion

The
is

definition of religion

which has
is

just

been proposed

one which a believer

who

ignorant of or indifferent
religions
is

to the existence

and claims of other

would not
the result
religious
all

think of proposing.
experience.
religion,
10

In short, the definition

of a systematic investigation of the facts of

a

Such investigation is called the science of form of what we have called scientific ex-

perience.

meant by the science of religion, it is necessary to define science more precisely. A science is, in the broadest sense, systematized knowledge of some particular field. No science exists if mere facts are accumulated without system or law; and no science
In order to
clear

make

what

is

aims to investigate
does not include
is

all

the objects in the universe.
all

Asit

tronomy may include
all-inclusive.

of the heavenly bodies, but

life cells

or ethical principles.

No

science

formal and the and mathematics, deal with the laws of implication or deduction, which are universally valid, in the sense that they cannot be changed or affected by any further experiences, and are true of whatever experiences they may be applied to. It is of this kind of science that religious apriorists and logical
science, the

There are two main kinds of

empirical.

The formal

sciences, like logic

10 See § 4 above.

ORIENTATION
1X

19

positivists

are

thinking.

In

addition

to

the

formal

sciences, there are the empirical sciences, which are what most people have in mind when they speak of science. An empirical science is one that selects a particular kind of object observable in experience and attempts, by repeated observations, hypotheses, and experiments (wherever posTypical emsible) to describe the laws of its phenomena.
pirical

sciences

are

physics,
like.
It is

chemistry,

biology,

geology,

astronomy, and the
science

evident that the laws of one

may

be very different from the laws of another.

The laws
are

of biology are not applicable to physics,
life.

and the
physics

laws of physics do not account for
the
sciences

Still less like

of
it

psychology,

anthropology,

sociology,

and history; and
these sciences

must be granted that the laws which discover are less numerous, less precise, and
than the laws of physics.
12

(as a rule) less verifiable

Yet

knowledge of
directly,
is

these fields, since they concern

man

himself

of even greater practical importance than knowlif

edge of the inorganic world, for
out

man knew

physics with-

knowing

his

own

nature and powers he would never

be able to apply physics intelligently to meet
If,

human

needs.

on the other hand,

man

understood himself, he would

be unable to restrain his curiosity about nature.

The

science of religion falls

among

the empirical sciences

which deal with man's psychology,
rather than

history,

and

sociology,

among the
which

physicochemical or biological sciences.

Hence
of

there are three

main

sciences of religion: psychology

religion,

describes

the

conscious

processes

of

religious experience, as well as their relations to individual
11

See

§

2 of this chapter.

There is still great difference of opinion about the interrelations of the sciences, and some writers insist on holding that the social sciences are scientific only in proportion as they conform to the methods and principles of physics. See,
for example, Jacques Rueff,

12

From

the Physical to the Social Sciences (Baltimore:

The Johns Hopkins

Press, 1929).

20

ORIENTATION
social

and

behavior and to the unconscious; history of

reli-

gion and comparative religion, which describes the develop-

ment

of religious beliefs

religion,

ligion as

and practices; and sociology of which investigates the laws and functions of reA survey of these sciences a group phenomenon.
Chapter
§
II.

will appear in

7.

Philosophy
is

The

goal of our investigation

not,

however, a science

of religion, but a philosophy of religion.

What,

then,

is

the essential difference between science and philosophy?

There
But
if

is

probably
the

as

much

confusion

among

authorities

about the definition of philosophy as about that of religion.

we adopt

same general method

in seeking a defi-

nition of philosophy as

we

previously did in seeking to

define religion,

we

shall find that,

with

all their differences,

philosophers have been distinguished from workers in the

by their interest in the unity of experience. Every science deals with a specific, delimited field some
special sciences

part or aspect of experience

—or

—

raises a specific

problem,

such

as the

measurement of motion.
as a

Philosophy, however,

aims to understand experience
all

whole, and to correlate
matter,

problems.
or

Moreover, the sciences only describe necesof
their

sary

probable laws
its

subject

whereas

philosophy, by
tion of value

more

inclusive aim, raises also the ques-

and asks to what end the laws of science ought to be applied and what may be the moral, aesthetic, or religious worth of the facts. Since questions about value can be answered seriously only in the light of the unity of our whole experience, the so-called normative sciences of 13 logic, ethics, aesthetics, and philosophy of religion are sometimes called philosophical sciences (as by Fullerton),
13
it

Many modern

logicians object to regarding logic as normative.

as descriptive of the laws of implication.

However,

these laws,

They treat when known

ORIENTATION
as

21

and sometimes are incorporated wholly into philosophy
branches of the theory of value (axiology).
is

Philosophy,
If
it

however,
were,
it

not exclusively

concerned with value.
all

could not deal with the unity of

experience.

The philosopher must raise questions about the relation of value to existence, the meaning and limits of human knowledge in
as a
its

entire scope, the relation of

human

experience

to the rest of the universe,

whole.

and the nature of that universe Investigation of knowledge is called epistemol-

ogy; investigation of the nature of existence, ontology; investigation of the universe as a whole, cosmology; investi-

gation

of

the

ultimate

nature

of

human

consciousness

and its relations to body and world, rational psychology; and investigation of values and their relation to existence,
axiology.
to the
If

The name

of metaphysics
as a

is

now

usually given

system of philosophy
use the real as a

whole.
to indicate the
is

we

word

whole

active

universe of which our experience

but a tiny fragment, Or, alterna-

then

we may

say that philosophy

is

an attempt to discover
reasoned account

a coherent
tively,

and unified
is

definition of the real.
to give a

philosophy

an attempt

of experience as a whole.

More simply

still,

philosophy

is

an attempt to discover the whole truth.
Philosophy
is

akin to religion in that both are dealing

with ultimates.
reality.

Each

is

an attitude toward fundamental
it

Religion penetrates, as best

can, to the source
its

of
all

its

values

and usually

relates that source, as

God,

to

of the real.

"In the beginning

God

created the heavens

and the earth."
plied, agrees

Philosophy

also, as

has already been im-

with religion and
life

differs

from

science in deal-

ing with the values of
by

and
to

in distinguishing higher
think, not

human

beings, indicate

how men ought
it

how

they actually do

think day by day.
§

Hence

is

still

possible to regard logic as normative.

See

4 of this chapter.

22

ORIENTATION
values.

from lower
ship,

Philosophy

differs

from

religion in that

religion consists of attitudes of concern, devotion or wor-

and conduct, whereas philosophy is a rational underBoth have the same object, the ultimate unity of reality and the source of values in the universe. Religion takes practical and emotional attitudes toward that object, while philosophy seeks to define and interpret it. Out of this situation has arisen the fact that religion on the one hand needs philosophy in order to have an objective basis for its faith, but on the other hand it fears
standing.

philosophy,

lest free

investigation destroy both the attitude
also the

of religious faith
§ 8.
It is

and

grounds on which

it

rests.

Philosophy of Religion (and Theology)
possible to offer a preliminary definition of the

now

main
and

topic of our investigation.

Philosophy of religion

is

an attempt to discover by rational interpretation of religion
its

relations to other types of experience, the truth of

religious beliefs
practices.

and the value
is

of religious attitudes

and

Philosophy of religion
cally of axiology)

a branch of metaphysics (specifiinterprets the relations of

which

man's

experience of religious values to the rest of his experiences;
thus
it

seeks both to contribute concrete religious values to

the interpretation of experience as a whole and to criticize
those values in the light of a rational view.
religion thus has

Philosophy of

no methods, no

criteria,
all

no

authorities

which

are not the
is

common

property of

philosophy.

All

experience

open

to philosophical investigation

without

reserve or exception.

Neither piety nor science

is

exempt

from the need

of being interpreted in the light of the total
is

experience of which each

but a part.
necessary to relate philosophy

For the sake of

clarity,

it is

of religion to another branch of thought

which

is

called

ORIENTATION
theology. theos

23

The word theo-logy, derived from the Greek (God) and logos (word), means "theory about God."
"First

Aristotle's

Philosophy" culminated in the idea of

Pure Form; and hence Aristotle called his metaphysics "theological." Plato's thought also led to a conception of God; his Timaeus, in many ways analogous to
as

God

the

book

of Genesis, exercised a

profound influence over

Christian thought.
is

A large part of the history of philosophy
at a rational definition of

an attempt to arrive

God.

Not

Plato and Aristotle only, but also the Stoics, even the Epicureans, the Neo-Platonists, the Christian Fathers, the Scholastics,

the

British

empiricists,

the

Continental rationalists,

Kant and the German idealists, the Scotch common sense school, and American thinkers down to Royce, Bowne, Hocking, and Whitehead, have all dealt seriously and constructively
theless,
it

with the central theological problem.
is

Never-

generally recognized that philosophy should

be distinguished from theology.
Historically, theology has

been
is

classified

as

natural or

revealed.

Natural theology

an investigation of the prob-

lem of God based on reason and experience, without recourse to the authority of any special revelation. Natural
theology

may
on

be either rational or empirical.
is

Revealed

theology (also called dogmatic theology)
as relies

such theology

a divine revelation (the Bible, the

Koran, or the

Book

of

Mormon,

for example)

as

its

ultimate religious

authority.

In the main, however, this old distinction between natural

and revealed theology has come

to be largely ignored,

especially

among

Protestant "modernist" theologians.

With

breakdown of traditional standards of belief, resulting from the growth of science and philosophy and from the application of scientific methods to Biblical criticism, the idea of a dogmatic authority in Biblical revelation has
the

John Bennett, R. L. Calhoun, W. M. Horton, and others), theology is a branch of philosophy of religion. It differs

from philosophy of religion simply in the nature of its starting point. For philosophy of religion, all religious beliefs and experiences, of whatever sort or kind, are considered as the primary source material for interpretation. For theology, the historical beliefs of the theologian's own Theology religious community are the primary sources.

thus has a

more

restricted field as

its

starting point; but the

materials of this field are studied by the
rational

same

critical
If

and
the

methods

as philosophy applies in any field.
set

theologian maintains his ideal as thus

up, he

is

a phi-

losopher of religion engaged in a peculiarly thorough and
critical

philosophical interpretation of the subject matter

of

some one religious faith. Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that preoccupation with one tradition tends to produce a bias in favor of that tradition which renders
objectivity all but impossible.

In addition to the type of theology just described,

which
is

corresponds roughly to the old natural theology, there

a

contemporary counterpart of revealed theology, which often rejects natural theology. There are still many who believe
that they can find in the Bible (or in whatever Sacred Scriptures they

may

possess)

an authoritative revelation of

God

that

is

above reason and to which reason must submit

ORIENTATION
exactly as
it

25

must submit to the authority of any given fact. is found among the Orthodox Jews, supported by an ancient and learned tradition. It is the standThis point of view
point of the theology of the
intellectual
its

Roman
It is

Catholic Church, the

and

spiritual authority of

which exceeds even

extensive temporal powers.
It
is

shared by

many

Luther-

ans and by Calvinists.
mentalists."
It
is

held by those called "Funda-

the basis of

movements

as

different as

Christian Science and the Witnesses of Jehovah.

In an

acute form it has recently been reasserted by the most famous living Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, and less sharply by others like Emil Brunner and Paul Tillich. For those who rest theology on authoritative revelation, theology is a very different matter from philosophy of religion, for Christian faith is said by Brunner to be "a fundamentally different thing from every philosophy," because "the complex of grounds and consequences developed by natural reason 14 has been broken into by revelation." Paul Tillich builds his philosophy of religion on the antithesis between religion, which is human action, and revelation, which is
.
.

.

divine action.
It is

15

evident from this discussion that there are different

and of the importance of revelation. The student should be warned against hasty or partisan decisions, and especially against any deconceptions of the
of theology
cision at all at the outset of the investigation.

meaning

There

is

one further difference between philosophy of

religion and theology which has not yet been mentioned. That difference is founded on the fact that theology, as the word implies, is chiefly concentrated on the definition of God and his purpose. The field of theology is summarized 16 in the titles of two able works, The Doctrine of God and
14

15 Tillich,

Brunner, PR, 13. RP, in Dessoir, PEG, 769.

16

By A.

C.

Knudson.

26

ORIENTATION
of

Philosophy of religion, on an attempt to interpret not merely the idea of God, but also the meaning and value of the whole

The Doctrine

Redemption.

the other hand,

is

development of religion and of
perience.
§ 9.

all

phases of religious ex-

History of Philosophy of Religion

Attention has already been called to the fact that the history of Occidental philosophy
is

largely a history of at-

sumend investigation of the whole of this book. But the systematic field of religion and religious ideas as a separate department It may be said of philosophy proper is something modern. to have begun with David Hume's works on The Natural History of Religion (1755) and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (published posthumously in 1799), which rigorously analyzed religious beliefs. Kant's epoch-making Critique of Pure Reason (1781) contained a searching and devastating attack on the traditional arguments for God, while his Critique of Practical Reason (1788) developed a new form of the moral argument for God. His later work, Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone (1793), is a
is

tempts to solve the problem of God.

That history

marized

in the "Selected Historical Bibliography" at the

sketch of his philosophy of religion.

The modern

con-

ception of the subject, however, and the popularization of
the term "philosophy of religion," are due largely to Hegel's

Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (published posthumously, 1832!!.). Hegel held the task of philosophy of religion to be that of discovering the principles at
history,

work

in

its

he based his treatment on a survey of the movement of religion as an historical force. His empirical
so

and

method
earlier

of judging each aspect of religious history by

its

relation to the
in
this

whole

is

essentially the

method described
an
apriorist

chapter.

Thus, Kant

is

and

ORIENTATION
Hegel an
empiricist.

27

Schelling

made

original

contribu-

on Mythology and Revelation (1843). Hegel's influence was long dominant among Scottish phitions in his Lectures

losophers of religion (for example,

Edward and John Caird and Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison), as well as among British
(F.

H. Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet) and American thinkers
St.

(the

Louis School, Josiah Royce,

W.

E.

Hocking).

A

fourth

German

has contributed much, namely, Lotze,
(first

whose Microcosmus

published 1856-1858) contained
of lec-

rich empirical material,

and whose small volume
to
its

ture outlines, Philosophy of Religion (1882), exerted an in-

fluence

disproportionate

size.

Many

British

and

American philosophers
less

of religion are indebted to Lotze,

including such Neo-Hegelians as Bosanquet and Royce and

Hegelian writers, such

as B. P.

Bowne and G.

T. Ladd.
survey

During the twentieth century
investigations has

a profusion of important

appeared, a brief chronological
furnish

which will ment of the
of

suffice to

some

picture of the developa

Danish scholar, wrote in 1901 a Philosophy of Religion, which has been widely translated and is famous for its conception of religion as resting on the axiom of the conservation of values. He rejected belief in the personality of God and in personal immortality. Josiah Royce delivered his GifTord Lecdiscipline.

H. HofTding,

tures in Scotland

on The World and the Individual (1899-

1900, published 1904), in which he interpreted religion in 17 the light of his absolute idealism. In 1901-1902, William

James also gave Gifford Lectures, which were published
once
as

at

The

Varieties of Religious Experience.

Although
philo-

primarily psychological, this
sophical ideas

work contained many
and

and did much

to increase the confidence of
validity of re-

the scholarly public in the normality
17

He was

the

first

American

invited to this

famous

lectureship.

28

-ORIENTATION
J.

ligious experience.

M.

E.

McTaggart, the distinguished
wrote

Cambridge University
the personality of

professor,

Some Dogmas

of

Religion (1906) as a critique of religious ideas; he rejected

God

but accepted belief in immortality.

The
ferent
at

year 1912 saw two brilliant contributions, very dif-

from each

other.

W.

E.

Hocking, Royce's successor

Harvard, published The Meaning of God in Human Experience, another idealistic philosophy of religion on an
empirical basis, and E. Durkheim, the French sociologist,

wrote The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, which
terpreted
all

in-

religious beliefs

and

practices as purely social

phenomena.

During the World War, Rudolf Otto wrote The Idea of the Holy (1917), which has passed into many editions, and is famous for its description of religion as an experience which he called numinous, having the quality of unique religious awe and mystery. The British realist, S. Alexander, presented a new, evolutionary idea of God and religion in Space, Time, and Deity (1920). G. H. Joyce's Principles of Natural Theology (1923), well represents the great scholastic tradition. A. N. Whitehead's GifTord Lectures, Process and Reality (1929), offer a profound interpretation of God in the light of the modern developments of science and philosophy. F. R. Tennant's systematic twovolume work on Philosophical Theology (1928, 1930), the
greatest product of recent British philosophy of religion,
is

matched by A. C. Knudson's volumes in America, The Doctrine of God (1930) and The Doctrine of Redemption
(i933)-

The
titled

leading French
his life's

philosopher,

Henri Bergson, has

crowned

work with

a brilliant contribution en-

The Two Sources

of Morality

and Religion (1932).
is

John Dewey, leading American philosopher,
marily a philosopher of religion, but his

not pri-

A Common

book on Faith (1934) has aroused much discussion by
little

ORIENTATION
its

29

challenge of traditional concepts, as did his Girrord Lec-

tures

on The Quest for Certainty (1929).
account of the history of philosophy of religion would

An

not be complete without reference to hostile treatments of
religion
Socialist
is

by ideologists of the Communist and National groups. The most systematic work by a Marxist

probably V. F. Calverton's

The Passing of the Gods
is

(1934),

while the best
Rosenberg's

known

National Socialist work

Alfred

Der

of the Twentieth Century)

gards religion
it

as a

myth
race.

to

Myth The former work reas the tool of capitalism. The latter treats be superseded by the higher myth of "blood,"
des 20. Jahrhunderts (The
(1930).
is

My thus

that

is,

The

present state of philosophy of religion, therefore,

that of conflict, or as

Hegel would

say, of dialectic.

Bibliographical

Note

The abbreviations used are explained in the bibliography at the back of the book. The purpose of the bibliographical notes is to survey the most important recent literature in the field. The modern empirical study of religion, in a sense founded by Schleiermacher, was given its chief impetus by James in VRE(i902). Macintosh, TES(i9i9), raised the problem of empirical method in the field; Bixler (ed.), NRE(i937) shows diversity of opinion among those influenced by Macintosh, who himself replies to them in an article, "Empirical Theology and Some of Its Misunderstanders," in The Review of Religion, 3( J 939)' 383—399. A more pragmatic and less theistic use of empirical method is that of Wieman in Wieman and Horton, GOR(i938), and many other works. Wieman and Meland, APR(i936), contains a critique of most current views. Tennant, PT(i928), is the best British treatment. Ayer, LTL(i936), gives
a logical positivist's destructive criticism of all religious experience

and defines an empirical method valid only for sense data. The method of apriorism is best stated in Knudson, VRE(i937); see also England, VRE(i938), and Moore, TRE(i939). The point

30
of view of the text
Bertocci,

ORIENTATION

is presented in Brightman, Art. (1937), and in EAG(i938), and in reviews of the latter in the Journal of Philosophy and the Review of Religion. Related problems are discussed in Dewey, LOG(i938), Wieman, NPR (1935), and, from

a semi-Barthian point of view, in Brunner,
ically valuable,
is

PR (1937). An

histor-

but somewhat one-sided, treatment of the problem found in Walker's article, "Can Philosophy of Religion be Em-

pirical ?" in

Jour.ReL, 19(1939)5315-329.

TWO
RELIGION AS A FACT
Scientific and Philosophical Investigation
x

of Religion

N

the preceding chapter there
of religion as

was proposed a
a

definition

essentially

concern

about experiences which are supremely valued.

This or any other definition must be derived

from the

facts of experience.
it is

Such a definition

is

not a

faith or a belief;

a description, intended to be as ob-

jective as a physicist's description of the properties of

an
is

electron.

Only

after

having established what religion

can the investigator proceed to a philosophical interpretation of
it.

The

nonscientific facts of course are the basis of

science, of religion,

But
try

it

to

and of philosophy of religion alike. would be arbitrary and wasteful for a thinker to build up a philosophy on his own personal, unexperiences without regard to the

scientific

work

of the

sciences of religion.

These sciences
religion

—the

history, psychol-

ogy, and sociology of
facts

—furnish

a

survey of the

without which philosophy would be spinning cobdesire or hate or of formal logic,

webs of

none of which

lead to any trustworthy conclusions about the real world.

The

error of

some philosophers

of religion in disregarding

the facts of religion has led others to approach the extreme
of holding that philosophy of religion consists entirely of
1

Review Chap.

I,

§§ 6-9.

3i

32 a survey of

RELIGION AS A FACT
its

history, psychology,

and sociology;

in fact,

each of the sciences of religion has partisans
it

who
is

identify

with philosophy.

We

read in turn that the historical,
the only

the psychological, or the sociological approach
one.

Nevertheless, the error of identifying science with
is

philosophy
science

as

misleading as the error of supposing phi-

losophy to be independent of science.
as

The one
is

is

pseudo

the other

is

pseudo philosophy.
to

Perhaps the
suppose that

worst phase of the pseudoscientific error
if

we can

only discover the earliest forms of primitive

religion, as inferred

from the

practices of the
2

Aruntas of

Australia or the Ainus of Japan, then
religion
is.

we
is

shall

know what

This valuation of origins
It
is

both unscientific

and unphilosophical. tionary method is not
sake, but only as

unscientific because the evolu-

interested in origins for their
life

own
its

one stage in a developing

process.

Religion cannot be understood by a contemplation of

obscure origins in paleolithic times any more than a Judaean

mustard tree can be understood by contemplating a grain of mustard seed. It is unphilosophical because the philosopher is concerned with our experiences as a whole and cannot give any more exalted rank to one experience than to another until after he has surveyed the whole. To interpret religion in terms of
its

earliest manifestations

would

be as rational as to interpret the Kantian philosophy in

terms of the

earliest

babblings of

little

baby Immanuel.
!

"Origin does not determine meaning or value."
In the present chapter, the aim
facts of religion in highly
is

to present the

main
suffi-

condensed form, yet with

cient detail to furnish orientation,

and with guidance for
is

supplementary reading when further information
sired.
2 3

de-

The method

is

purely descriptive
Volumes
of

or,

as

the Ger-

On An

both, consult the Index

ERE and

EB.

expression often used by Borden Parker Bowne.

RELIGION AS A FACT
mans
ideal
beliefs
say, wertjrei

33

(free

from value)

;

no question of the

worth of
is

religious values or of the truth of religious

raised in this chapter.

In short, religious valua-

tions are to be described without evaluation or criticism.
§
2.

Sciences of Religion
stated, the sciences of religion are

As has already been
history of religion,
of religion.

psychology of religion, and sociology

The
ments.
it

sciences of religion are all relatively recent develop-

In view of man's age-long experience with religion

may seem

strange that neither the Greeks nor the

Romans
This

nor modern
objectively

man
not,

has until recently undertaken to inquire

and
is

scientifically into the facts of religion.

long delay
It is

however, so strange

as

it

appears to be.

to the lack of the

due (in Greece, in Rome, and in development of an

later

Europe) partly

historical sense,

and

perhaps even more to the warfare of theology with science.

A

great

mind
on

like Plato's

was

far

truth of religion than about
of a fight
his

its

more concerned about the history, and he had enough

hands when he challenged the mores of the sacred Homeric scriptures without also going into questions of the higher criticism. Throughout the Middle Ages, theology was so predominant that the objective attitude necessary for the scientific study of religion

was

al-

most unattainable.
sued only

The

sciences of religion
is

can be pur-

being his

when own

the scientist
beliefs

able to forget for the time
beliefs of others

and describe the

without any thought of orthodoxy or heresy, edification or
peril to faith.
It is

not until recent times that this precondition for a his-

tory of religion

could be

fulfilled.

The

debates of

the

Enlightenment (the eighteenth century) about the origins of religion whether it was monotheistic or (as Hume held)

—

34

RELIGION AS A FACT

polytheistic

— were
The

still

far

from

a history of religion.

Here

and

there an obscure writer began to seek to bring the facts
4

view the history of religion as a connected whole was made by Hegel in his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, posthumously pubBut the modern science of history of relished in 1832. ligion had its real inception in the work of the Orientalist and philologist, Friedrich Max Miiller (1823-1900). A student of Sanskrit, he retired from a professorship at Oxford to become, in 1876, editor of The Sacred Bookj of the
together.
first

serious attempt to

East, a series that

is

still

today a standard collection of
various

English
Since
field.

translations

of

the

Oriental

scriptures.

Max

Miiller, countless scholars

have worked in the
thoroughly
scientific

Now,

history of religions

is

a

discipline.

As pre-eminent achievements should be mena massive
collection of facts

George Foot Moore (1851-1931) of Harvard; and the comprehensive Encyclopaedia of Religion
edited by James Hastings (1852-1922).

and Ethics

Anthroall

pology, philology, archaeology, and general history
tribute to the

con-

development of history of

religions.

Introduc-

by C. H. although published in 1913, is still one of surveys of comparative religions and its 585-623) shows the range of work being
tion to the History of Religions

Toy

(1836-1919),

the most valuable

bibliography (pp.

done

in the field.

Hundreds
* See,

of able French, Italian,
instance,

German,

British,

Ameri-

for

William Ward, All Religions and Religious Ceremonies

(Hartford: Oliver D. Cooke and Sons, 1823). Mr. Ward undertook "to exhibit an impartial view of the Doctrines of each Religious denomination of the present

day ... as far as practicable from their own Creeds or Confessions of faith" and "to present statements of facts, and without comment." This work included the religion ... of the Hin"Christianity, Mahometanism, and Judaism, doos" and "of other pagan nations." Here was an honest effort to be scientific, yet without adequate method or access to sources.
.

.

.

RELIGION AS A FACT
can,

35 to the science.
It

and Oriental scholars have contributed
is

Similarly, psychology of religion
is

a recent growth.

one of the few sciences which have had their birth in the

United States of America.

The

first

writer to

make

sys-

tematic empirical observations of the psychological states

and processes involved Edwards (1703-1758),
Princeton University.
5

in religious experience

was Jonathan

who became
It
is

the third president of

not surprising that the great

eighteenth-century theologian was a leader in the religious
revival of the time,

known

as

"The Great Awakening"
is

(1734-1749); what
revival in

is

surprising

that he wrote careful

objective reports of the psychological

phenomena

of the

A

Faithful Narrative of the Surprising

Wor\

of

(1737) and A Treatise Concerning Religious AffecSuch psychological interest was not duplitions (1746). cated until well into the next century, when revivalists began to gather data regarding the age at which converts "experienced religion." It was found that conversion occurred

branch of practical theology in the service of the church,
5 See C. H. Faust and T. H. Johnson, Jonathan Edwards (New York: The American Book Company, 1935), an excellent volume of selections with notes in the American Writers Series.

36

RELIGION AS A FACT
Furtherits

or else has turned into naturalistic propaganda.

more, the development of general psychology, with
perimental techniques and
inner
its

ex-

tendency to objective methods,

has produced methods unsuited to the interpretation of the
life.

Starbuck, Coe, and Pratt are no longer working

in the field,

although Leuba continues productive; no outhas appeared.
the growth of sociology of religion.
recent
is

standing
Still

new worker
is

more

That

religion

a social

phenomenon
of

is

too obvious a fact

to escape attention,

and the positivism of Auguste Comte
founder
etre

(1798-1857),

the

sociology,

who

regarded

humanity
the
start.

as le

grand

(the supreme being), directed

the attention of sociologists to the religious problem
It

from

was

in the special field of anthropology that
first explicitly
J.

modern

sociology of religion was

developed,

G. Frazer and by Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), whose Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912, English tr. 1915) has been widely influential. The greatest work yet done in the field is Max Weber's (1864-1920) Gesammelte Aufsdtze zur Religionssoziologie (1920, 1921), a three-volume investigation

notably in the study of the totemic system by

which lays chief stress on the interrelation between religion and economic factors. (Marxist treatments of religion, like
V. F. Calverton's
centrate

The Passing

of the

Gods

[1934], con-

Joachim Wach, the chief authority in the field at present, conceives the problem from the standpoint of group life. His Einfuhrung in die

on the same problem.)

Religionssoziologie (1931) {Introduction to the Sociology of Religion) sets forth a program for future research.
§ 3.

History of Religion: Primitive

The
is

history of religion, as of any other
still less
is

human
it

activity,

not a mere record of events;

a selection of
is

especially

striking or sensational

events.

It

rather an

RELIGION AS A FACT
as a

37

attempt to see the development of man's religious culture

whole and

to trace the

guiding principles and causes

of that development.

Single facts or sets of facts out of the

past or present are historical in the sense that they are actual

events

which have happened.

But they are what we have

called nonscientific facts until the historian has set
in their proper relations to historical
process.

them
foot-

The

print of

Man

Friday was a nonscientific fact until Robinson
its

Crusoe discovered

relation to Friday himself; then
it

he

saw
sight

it

as part of a

development and
is

became

for his in-

an item in the history of both himself and Friday.
properly an interest in development,
Just as Genesis starts also

Although history
it

is

an

interest in beginnings.

with the words, "In the beginning," so every mind sooner
or later wants to
it

know

about the beginning of everything

finds.

Some

carry this interest so far that they
it.

may

fairly

be said to be obsessed by

The

child

who

asks,

"Who

made God?"
distinguish
a
is

beginnings, and

embarked on the infinite regress of no more foolish than the man who cannot rational from an irrational question. The
has
is

person

who

obsessed with beginnings, however,
is

is

often

too easily satisfied, and
child.

less rational

than the wondering

Such a person supposes that the first stage of the of any process reveals what that process really is. If he finds that the first stage of morality was the mores of the group, he is certain that morality is nothing but group mores. If he learns that the first stage of astronomy was a kind of astrology, he declares that astronomy is nothing but astrology. And if he discovers that the Christian sacrament of the Lord's Supper can be traced back through the mystery religions to the early custom of
development
eating the totemic animal, he concludes that the Lord's

Supper

is

nothing but a totem
is

rite.

Such

a process of in-

terpretation

fallacious in

method.

Yet the fallacy

—which

38

RELIGION AS A FACT
call

we may
alent in

the fallacy of primitivism

—has

been so prev-

open or disguised form among certain thinkers
it

about religion that

requires
is

somewhat

fuller treatment.

The

fallacy of primitivism

the assertion that any process
its

can be best understood
primitive form.
religion
ligion
is
it

and evaluated by knowing
field of

When

used in the

philosophy of
all re-

is

a short

and easy way of proving that

nonsense, for the primitive forms of religion, taken

by themselves and judged in the light of modern knowledge, seem largely nonsense. Yet the absurdity of judging the truth and value of fully developed religion by the beliefs and practices of the Bushmen of Australia or of the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego is no greater than the parallel absurdity of judging the merits of the Sermon on the Mount by a study of the infant psychology of Jesus at the time of
the slaughter of the innocents, or of judging a college education to be worth

no more than the

state of

mind

of the

educand

at the

moment when he

decided that he would
the
in-

go to college. While historical understanding must indeed include most primitive phases of its subject matter, it must also

clude the development of the primitive into the mature.

Knowledge

of primitive religion

is

necessary to an under-

standing of religion; nevertheless, the fallacy of primitivism
effectually prevents

the

understanding of religion or of

anything

else.

Thus
earliest

far the

word

primitive has been used as

if it

meant

or

first

stage.

This

is

not
is

strictly

correct.
it

The

earliest stage of a

development

primitive,
last

is

true; but

the primitive stage of culture

may

long after the begin-

ning, and

may

survive even in the contemporary world.

In fact, were this not true,

we

should have almost no knowlit is

edge of primitive religion, since
"primitives" that

from contemporary
first

we

infer

what the

primitives

may

RELIGION AS A FACT
have been.
precarious.
left
It

39

should be noted that these inferences are
first

In the nature of the case, the

primitives

no written records and not even any artifacts. Indeed, evolutionary anthropology makes it almost impossible to point out one stage and say: "Here is the first primitive man in contrast with his parents, who were the last of the prehuman ancestors of man." It must, therefore, be admitted that our knowledge of the beginnings of religion is and will probably remain speculative. Yet speculation founded on common traits of primitives still living as our contemporaries in parts of Australia, Asia, and Africa, is based on authentic facts and is not mere fancy. We have thus established two preliminaries to the study
of the history of religion, especially of primitive religion:
(1)

the fallacy of primitivism

is

to be avoided;

(2)

the

relatively speculative character of
tive religion
is

our knowledge of primi-

to be recognized to such
it

an extent that

all

statements about
serve.

are to be accepted with caution

and

re-

What,
face a

then,

was the beginning
of

of religion?

At once we
Some,

difference

opinion

among

authorities.

notably
ception
the

Andrew Lang, hold
is

that the earliest religious con-

that of an "All-Father," a heavenly analogue to

headman of the tribe or clan; and there is evidence to show that traces of this idea survive among primitives whose present religious practices are on a much lower level, ethically and intellectually. Other anthropologists, however, are inclined either to minimize this evidence on account of its vagueness and the neglect with which the
belief
is

treated, or to ascribe

it

to the influence of mis7

sionaries
6

on the

primitives.

6

As

C. G. Seligman points out,
in the article,

See the excellent discussion by
in

Andrew Lang

"God

(Primitive

and Savage),"
7

In his article

ERE, VI, 243-247. on Nuba, ERE, IX, 403.

4o

RELIGION AS A FACT
Nuba,
a primitive African tribe, believe in
is

the

a "high

god," but this god

otiose,

and in

practice the spirits of the

dead overshadow him.

No

matter

how

fascinating

it

may

on the one hand, about a primibe to conjure up tive universal revelation of monotheism or, on the other hand, about the influence of missionaries on primitives, it is wiser to suspend judgment on problems about early belief in an All-Father or High God, and turn our attention
theories,

to

more

certain facts.

From
had and
to
it

the

start, it is

certain that all

life in this

world has
survival,

contend against environmental forces for
is

its

also certain that primitive

man

lacked the advan-

tages of newspaper, radio,
science,

and college education.

With no
of

no

literature,

and only the crudest beginnings
and wild men.
8

language, he had to struggle for his survival against the
forces of nature, wild beasts,

As Schopen-

hauer has

said, the

beginning of religion and philosophy
If

may be found

in the fact of death.

men

never died, they
die,
it,

would neither reason nor worship.
least to face
it

But they do

and

they seek for means to avert death, to postpone

or at

with dignity.
procedure for warding
off

Man's
But
his

earliest

death was, of

course, the search for food
this search

and protection from the elements.

did not

suffice.

Man

did not understand the

causes of storms, of diseases, or even of the procreation of

young.

9

In the presence of the terrifying

unknown

with which he was surrounded, he had recourse to magic,
as a

means

of subduing the cosmic powers of his needs.

and bending
its

them

to the service
spells,

Magic, then, with
secrets

taboos,

incantations, fetishes,

of "medicine

8

See his famous essay, "Man's Need of Metaphysics."

8

See M. F. Ashley-Montagu,

Coming

into

Being

Among

the Australian Aborig-

ines

(New York:

E. P. Dutton and Co.,

1938).

See Notice in Jour. Phil., 35

(1938), 532.

RELIGION AS A FACT
men"

41

or shamans, is a means of compelling the hidden powers of the universe to submit to human will and to fulfill man's desires. But even primitive man has intelligence enough to perIn spite of the ceive that magic does not always work.

power

of superstition to assert itself against all contrary

According to Sir J. G. Frazer and other anthropologists, religion arises at the point where magic is seen to fail; when primitive thinkers perceived (i) that magic did not reach its goal, and (2) that the goal was unof magic the compulsion of the cosmic powers attainable, they seemed to conclude that it would be wiser Reto use the methods of persuasion than of compulsion. attempt to persuade the ligion, then, from the start, is an cosmic powers to be friendly to man, and is based on the presupposition that magic is inadequate and that man's 10 Neverdesires cannot wholly control the course of events. theless, not only in primitive religion, but even in the most highly developed religions of today, remnants of magic continue; the sacred book is often treated as a fetish and prayer is often regarded as a means of compelling Deity to obey man's whims or longings. Belief in witchcraft is Investigastill potent in some parts of the United States. tions show that some superstitions still prevail even among
evidence, facts are facts.

Murdock's OPC is a recent treatment. (OPC, 42) that primitives ascribe the failure of magic to stronger adverse magic. Thus its power was almost unbreakable. Yet religion
ences to Malinowski in the bibliography.

Murdock
broke
it.

points out

42

RELIGION AS A FACT
as

function of death in man's struggle for survival must not

be taken

an endorsement of Petronius's (or
fecit

Statius's)

oversimple formula, primus in orbe
first

deos timor (fear

made gods

in the world),

11

or of Stefan Zweig's view

that religion arose solely because

man

suffers.

The

desire

for self-preservation

be based on fear or suffering alone.

and for the avoidance of death cannot There would be no fear of death and no hope for relief or suffering if life held no values worth keeping or striving for. Magic itself is as much a struggle for a successful, healthy, and happy life
as
it is

a struggle against dangers.
at

Religion, even

more than

magic, aims

the conservation and increase of values, as

Harald Hoffding, the Danish philosopher, said. Perhaps, then, Schopenhauer was not wholly right. Perhaps man would have been led to religion for the sake of the organization and creation of values, even if death did not threaten to bring them all to an end. In fact, all attempts to trace
the origins of religion to a single source, including Carveth

human culture is all due to the results of 12 and the consequent hunter's life, are oversimplifications. Even the most primitive religion is complex. Whatever its causes, religion actually arose and was differentiated from magic. It is possible to trace with some
Read's view that
a flesh diet
plausibility at least four conceptions of primitive religion,
all

of

pologists
it

which have been exhaustively investigated by anthroand historians of religion. For present purposes
animism, (2)

will suffice to give a very brief survey of (i)

spiritism, (3) totemism,

and (4) mana.

13

11 It occurs in Publius Papinius Statius, Thebais, III, 664,

and

also in Petronius,

Fragments, No. 76. These facts are derived from B. Stevenson, The Home Boo/{ of Quotations (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1934), 800. 12 Read, OMS, 1. Read's work, however, is valuable on the general topic
of magic and religion.
13 All histories of religion

of these concepts.

See, for example,

and most philosophies of religion contain accounts works by Galloway, Wright, Drake, Toy,

and Carpenter, mentioned

in the bibliography.

RELIGION AS A FACT
(1)

43

Animism.

extends,
self

we

find

As far back as our knowledge of man him presupposing a kinship between him-

and his world. In himself he is aware of life, the power movement, and feeling; he takes for granted that similar life and power and feeling animate all natural objects. This vague idea, obviously based on no clear notion of life
of

or

mind

or matter,

is

called animism.

It

is

evident that
for the

the most primitive religion entails
life

more

respect

world than does magic; when religion persuades the unseen forces instead of compelling them, it assumes that their life has a structure and rights of its own. Thus religious animism is more objective than magic; but it is 14 also more personal, for it treats the unseen as will.
of the (2) Spiritism.

Animism

survived for an indefinitely long
a less

period, then gradually
(in a sense)

was superseded by

vague and
Animists

more empirical view,
life

called spiritism.

regarded the

or soul as confined to the object
river.
10

which

it

animated
dantly

—human body or tree or
and
man's
religion.

But, as Lucretius

long ago observed,
testifies,

as the literature of religion
at

abun-

dream experiences began

an early date

to play a role in

In dreams, sons

would
see

meet
their
alive

their

dead fathers and mothers; parents would
see their

dead children; chiefs would

dead warriors

and marching. The dreamer would find himself far away from the tent where he was sleeping, perhaps in distant lands where he had never been in the body. In dreams, the ordinary laws of matter were suspended; one could fly or vanish at will. Marvelous events and beings would
magic bears a rough resemblance to sciBut the warning against the fallacy of primitivism should suffice to prevent any attempt to evaluate science in terms of magic, or idealism in terms of animism, although a philosophical psychologist like William McDougall does not hesitate to recognize an element of truth in animism or even to use that term to describe his own thought.
as are,

14

Crude

magic and animism

ence and animism to philosophy (especially to idealism).

13

De

return nattira, V,

n 71.

44

RELIGION AS A FACT
Thus
it

was quite natural and apparently emwere not "bound" to their bodies, as animists held, but were "free" and separable. Thus spiritism was developed, and with it the beginnings of the distinction between mind and matter, the belief in immortality, perhaps ancestor worship, and cerappear.
pirical for

men

to infer that their souls

tainly the belief in
let it

marvelous

spiritual powers.

Spiritism,

be noted,

moved even

further than

animism toward

the belief

in personal

gods and away from impersonal

magic.
(3)

Totemism.

1

*

been substantially universal
a

Animism and spiritism appear to have among primitives. Totemism,
system of beliefs and practices, was

much more complex
The

not equally universal, but was very widespread and socially
important.
totem,

an animal

(or

kind, was supposed to be connected in

plant) of some some mysterious

the life and well-being of the tribe. It typified, and possibly caused, the unity of the tribe as a social whole; it was often regarded as an ancestor from whom all were descended. In some tribes, such as the Arunta of Australia, the totem was eaten at ceremonial meals, which seem to have some remote historical connection with the sacraments of the Oriental Mystery Religions and of Christianity. Totemism was more social than were animism or spiritism, for it regulated not only social customs and taboos (as did magic), but also to some extent the relations of tribes to each other, as in the practice of exogamy (the rule that marriage can occur only with a person outside of one's

way with

own

totem group).

It

thus marks the beginnings of a crude

international law, as well as of group loyalty.
(4)

Mana.
is

Among the

Melanesians a term

is

used which

has been adopted by anthropologists to cover a primitive
belief that
16 See

supposed to have been rather widely held.
for information

Durkheim, EFRL,

and bibliography.

RELIGION AS A FACT
Mana
it

45

is

a

name

for the

power or

force

by virtue of which
is

exerts

its

peculiar effects.

This force

conceived im-

and thus mana is closer to magic and animism than to spiritism and totemism. However, it also bears some faint resemblance to modern notions of energy, and perhaps is a transition concept from magic to religion. Mana, then, may be the peculiar magical property of a stone, or the peculiar force that makes a hero heroic, so that cannibalism may be in part due to a desire to secure 17 the mana of the deceased. The Algonkins use the word "manitu" for a similar concept; other tribes use other names. The reader may recall "Gitche Manito the Mighty," from Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha," as well as the humble rabbit's foot, without having been aware that each is a possessor of mana.
personally,
§
4.

History of Religion: Tribal
not

Early religion was
like spiritism or the

merely primitive metaphysics,
it

concept of mana;

was, like totemism,
it

a

form

of social organization.

In fact,

is

probable that
tribal

primitive religion was

much more concerned with

customs, initiation rites (such as those studied by Spencer and Gillen among the Aruntas), and forms of sacrifice,

than with the animistic or

spiritistic

beliefs

underlying

them.
held
of
;

Notions of divine powers or beings were but vaguely
the

aim of religious practices was not the achievement some noble ideal, or the discovery of the divine will, but rather the preservation of the traditions and the identity of
the tribe or clan in
its

its

struggle for survival as well as in

conflicts

against other tribes.

Save for totemism and

for traces of the "high god," there
17 See

was hardly
article

a

glimmer
in

Wright, SPR, 24-29 and bibliography; also the
scholars,
like

"Mana"

ERE,

Vm.

Some

Murdock, believe

that

the

role

of

mana

has been

exaggerated.

46

RELIGION AS A FACT
Early religion was

of an intertribal religious consciousness.
tribal rather

than individual, exclusive rather than inclusive.
seen a

In

modern Germany we have

few
is

nationalistic ex-

tremists going back quite logically to the tribal exclusive-

ness of primitive religion.

Racialism

deeply rooted in

the stage of tribal religion.
§ 5.

History of Religion: National (Priestly)
history
is

change and no moment of its development is final. Although custom and ritual appeared to be rigidly static during the tribal stage, it
a process of social

Human

was impossible

that

mankind should continue

to exist divided

and hostile clans. It was inmerge into larger societies, as did the twelve tribes of Israel, and also that the new groups should seek a new and broader basis of unity, for it was iminto small, mutually exclusive
evitable that tribes should

possible that the religious customs of each

group should

reties

main unchanged under
and thus

the

new

social conditions.

Thus

of kinship or affinity brought tribes together into nations,
also national religions developed.

By

the time the

Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the Persian, the
Indian, the Chinese, the

peoples had developed a national
national religion,
religion
It is

Hebrew, the Greek, or the Roman life and a corresponding civilization had attained a high level, and

had passed through many changes.
and practice in of the great nations that have just been named.
are readily accessible in

not necessary or desirable for a philosophy of religion

to repeat the complicated systems of belief

the religions
It is

the function of history of religion to investigate these

facts,

and they

many noteworthy

manuals, such

as those of

G. F. Moore, G. A. Barton, C. H.

Toy, E.

W.

Hopkins, and of Friess and Schneider; the

smaller works by Allan Menzies and R. E.
instructive,

Hume
and

are also
critical.

but

somewhat

less

objective

RELIGION AS A FACT
Articles
available

47 are

on
in

all

the

great

national

religions

readily

and general encyclopaedias. It would be superfluous to detail here what is easily found elsewhere. Since, however, philosophy of religion is an interpretation
of the facts of religion,
chief traits
to
it

ERE

will prove useful to recapitulate the

which national religions have in common and note the most striking peculiarities of certain ones. For
purpose nine points will be considered.
(1) Particular-

which traces the descent of the Japanese imperial family from the primal male and deities, Izanagi and 19 Izanimi; and in the revival of Germanic tribal deities by some groups in National Socialist Germany. The instance of particularism best known to the Western world is the
in Shinto,

Hebrew
850
will
b.c.,

theory of a chosen race,
20

commonly

referred to as

the doctrine of election.

In a document dating from about

we

read that "Jehovah said unto
.

make

of thee a great nation

.

.

and

I

Abram, ... I will bless them

18

Veda means knowledge;

cf.

German

wissen, English wit.

19 See Barton,

RW,
its

229-232.
J,

20

Commonly

referred to as

because of

its

preference for Jahve (Jehovah) as

a divine name, and

origin in the tribe of Judah.

48
that bless thee

RELIGIONASAFACT
and him that curseth thee will
is

I

curse."

(Gen.

12:1-3)

Particularism

well illustrated in a message

from

Jephthah to the Ammonites reported in Judges 11:15-27, where Jephthah says: "Wilt thou not possess that which

Chemosh thy god
Jehovah our
will

giveth thee to possess?

So whomsoever
us,

God

hath dispossessed from before

them
in

we

possess."

Chemosh and Jehovah appear here
and
patriotic as

a role almost as provincial

John Bull.
in the

The

doctrine of a

Uncle Sam or chosen nation was reflected
as "the elect,"

New

Testament idea of the "saved"

and echoes of it may be detected in modern allusions to America as "God's country." Particularism appears in the national stage of the development of religion whenever that
stage

may

occur chronologically.

The

Japanese trace back

their Shinto

and its combination of nature-worship with Mikado-worship to 660 b.c.
(2) Social organization.

The
it is

very particularism of naof social organization.

tional religion implies that

a

form

phenomenon before it was an individual experience. C. H. Toy years ago pointed out that religious development goes hand in hand with social organization. The few tribal groups that had been shown to have little social organization (like the Rock Veddahs of Ceylon and
Religion was a social
the
religion.

Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego) also have little if any 21 By the time tribes have been merged to form

nations, religion universally accompanies the higher social

organization and prescribes
organization.

much
is

of the structure of that

Words

for the sacred in various languages
socially

refer both to that

which
is

forbidden

(compare
is

taboo) or ritually defiling, and also to that which
source of strength and
sets

a

socially approved.

Religion thus
to

up the
rites,

categories of sacred

and profane

govern cus-

toms,

and the very days of the week or month.
7.

On

» Toy,

IHR,

RELIGION AS A FACT
tivities

49

the sacred days, special rites are performed, ordinary ac-

suspended.

The

priestly class develops as a
social prestige

phase

and wealth. The fame of Egyptian priests, their scholarship and their social influence, was widespread in the ancient world, and they were often mentioned by Greek writers, notably Plato. In Greek religion, important social undertakings were governed by religious motives, and the Sibylline oracles of Graeco-Roman religion were so authoritative that Jewish and Christian writers produced "Sibylline"' oracles predicting the
of national religion

and acquires

rise of

those religions.
caste system of

The

Hinduism (with

its

division of so-

ciety into the

Brahman

or priestly class, the warrior class,

the agricultural class, the serfs, and the outcasts) dominates
the entire organization of social, economic,
in India.

and

cultural

life

The gods

of the

Roman

religion well illustrate

Mars is god of war, Venus goddess of love; Saturn governs the sowing of crops, Ceres their growth, Consus and Ops the harvest, Flora the blossoming of fruit trees, and Pomona the ripening fruit. Janus
the social character of religion:
is

the deity for the door of the house, Vesta for the hearth,
fields,

Lares for the
is

Fons for the springs of water."

Diana

the goddess of the hunt.
largely

In short, the gods of the Ro-

mans were
permeated

names

for social activities or for the bases

and thus the forms of religion life. In most religions, the very laws of the state were regarded as divinely commanded or sanctioned. The famous Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (2104-2061 b.c.) is inscribed on a block of
of social processes in nature,
all

aspects of their social

black dionite, with

Hammurabi
23

pictured as receiving the
of Israel are

laws from the sun-god.

The laws

commands

22 See Moore, HR, I, Chap. XXI. 23 For the text of this code see Hastings,

DB, Extra Volume, or Barton, AB,

377-405-

50

RELIGION AS A FACT
God
to Moses.

of

religion
officials

The church in most forms of national was almost a department of the state, and church were government officials. The stage of national
is

religion

still

reflected in the existence of "established"

churches, receiving governmental recognition and support,

and

in the

membership

of bishops in the British

House

of

Lords.
(3)

Shrines and temples.

Tribal religion had already

recognized

many

sacred places

—

trees,

groves, rivers, hills

(the Biblical "high places" of Canaanitic religion), stones,
pillars,

and the

like

—where

rites

were performed and
religion

cer-

tain

"taboos"

respected.

National

usually

con-

tinued to respect the traditions of these shrines, although
the religion of Israel was, by exception, intolerant of them,

both because of the exclusiveness of

its

theory of election

and because of the
local shrines

religious prostitution

features connected with the Canaanitic shrines.

and other immoral But small
national religion.
certain cen-

do not embody the
are

spirit of

To

typify national unity, great temples

and a

tralization

of worship

required.

The Parthenon

in

Athens, the great temples of the Assyrian religion in Nineveh, and of the Babylonian in the city of Babylon, are ex-

amples.

The

greatest

temples were thus usually in the
in Jerusalem, in

capital cities.

The temple

worship of the

Israelitic religion

which all the was centralized by law

under King Josiah in 621 b.c. in accordance with the provisions of Deuteronomy, was perhaps the most famous of all the temples erected by religion in its national phase. Discoveries of papyri in Egypt, however, show that at least one
temple to Jahve existed outside of Jerusalem, namely, at 24 Elephantine from 494-400 b.c. But in general, the places
of local Jewish
religious

gatherings are synagogues, not

temples,
24 Barton,

down

to the present day.

This architectural phase

AB, Chap. XXI.

RELIGION AS A FACT

51

of national religion survives in such a patriotic shrine as

Westminster Abbey. The building of temples requires great wealth and both expresses and increases the power of
the priestly class.

and sacrifice. Because religion is a social expression handed down from generation to generation, it is invariably accompanied by certain rites. Sacraments are ancient and widespread. The rite of circumcision was prac(4) Ritual
tised

among

Egyptians, Semites, Africans, Australasians,

Polynesians and others.
the priests on
25

Many

religious rites are occasions

for public prayer either by the
its

community

in unison or

by

behalf.

Religious songs, chants, psalms,
to all stages of religion, but

and hymns are
reached

also

common

full expression first in the national stage.

The

rites of

most national
religious

religions include dances
is

and
its

processions.

The

dance

said to

have found
26

highest development
dians, yet
it is

among

certain

North American

In27

found

in the religion of Israel,

as well as in

the Chinese, Japanese,
It is

interesting to

Hindu, Greek, and Roman religions. note that the custom of sacred dances led

by bishops survived in early Christianity even after its prohibition by a Council in a.d. 692. For aesthetic reasons, symbolic and religious dances are now being revived in some

American churches. Even more universal than dances or processions
fice.

is

sacri-

The

invisible

powers regarded

as the sources of value

could not be approached readily and

easily.

They were busy

about their

own

affairs,

in the early stages of primitive

and made many demands. Even and tribal religion there was
gifts

a universal
25

custom of offering
PRA.

to the spirits of the

Sec Heiler,

26

"David danced before the Lord," i Sam. 6:14.

See also Psalms 149:3 and
the

150:4. 27 See Moore,
article,

HR,

I,

Index,

s.v.

"Dance."

See also

rather

inadequate

"Processions and Dances," in Hastings,

ERE, X, and

Ellis,

DL.

52

RELIGION AS A FACT
28

dead.

Also,

it

very early became customary to offer food

fruits

and other articles of value to the gods. The best of the and grains and the best, or first-born, of all animals in the herds of the people were offered as sacrifice. From offer human beings, early times, it was also common to

especially first-born children, to the gods.
fice is

Human

sacri-

known to have existed in most of the Semitic religions, among the Hindus and the Chinese, in the Germanic religion, in Mexico, and in Africa. The story of the
sacrifice of Isaac
I

(Gen. 22) and Micah's question, "Shall

give

my

first-born for

my

transgression, the fruit of

my
its

body

for the sin of

my

soul?" (Micah 6:7), are signs of the

existence of the practice

among
is

the

Hebrews and

of

abandonment

for religious reasons.
9

The

Christian concep-

tion of the death of Christ

the highest historical sublima-

tion of the idea of sacrifice."

With

the decline of na-

tional religion, the practice of sacrifice as

means
low a

of appeasit.

ing the gods or of securing divine favor dies out with
(5) Sacred writings.

Culture

is

at so
is

level at the

primitive-tribal stage that literature

nonexistent and tradiis

tion

is

transmitted orally.

But national religion

coinci-

dent with the development of language and of learning.

Very

committed the usages and beliefs of their faith to writing, some on papyrus, some on stone or marble or clay bricks. Kings and temples accumulated great libraries and thus many of the sacred writings of the national religions have been preearly, the priests of all national religions

served.

One

of the oldest such writings
30

is

the Egyptian

Boo/{ of the Dead, a collection that accumulated between
1580 and 1000
b.c.,

which
its

is

remarkable for

its

social ethics

and the high

level of

faith in personal immortality.

Al-

28 See Toy, 1HR, Chap. X. 29 See the book of Hebrews.

30 See the translation bv E. A.

W.

Budge.

RELIGION AS A FACT

53

most contemporary with the Boo\ of the Dead were the Vedas of India (1500 b.c. to 800 B.C.). Many other scriptures were produced by later Brahmanism and Hinduism. In Israel, the ancient religious laws and songs began to be written down in the time of Moses (about 1250 b.c), and the last writings of the Old Testament, the book of Esther and some of the Psalms, may have been composed as late From the Babylonian religion, we have actual as 135 b.c.
tablets of part of the

Epic of the Creation, found in the
as well as later

li-

brary of Ashurbanipal (668-626 b.c),

more

complete versions, and also the Epic of Gilgamesh (a flood But both go back to much story) from the same library.

and in the case of the latter we have parts of an early version from the period 2232-1933 b.c The Homeric poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey (assigned by Herodotus to the ninth century before Christ), were the scriptures of the Greek national religion; it required courage for Plato to challenge them on moral grounds in the Reearlier sources,

public (about 380 b.c).

Much more

recent are the scrip-

tures of Shinto, the Ko-ji-ki ("Records of

Ancient Matters")

and the Nihon-gi ("Chronicles of Japan").
itself

The former was

written a.d. 712 and the latter a.d. 720, although the religion

was much
writings
list

older.

The
typical

named

constitute an incomplete but fairly

of the scriptures of national religions.

The

cus-

tom

of preserving religious standards in scriptural writings

continues

tional level.
tional

among religions that have transcended the The Bible contains documents of both

nana-

poetry,

and universal religion. These writings include prose, myth, legend, history, prophecy, and legislation.
scholarship has contributed

Modern

much

to the analysis

and interpretation of these valuable records. (6) Mores and morality. All religion, especially on the national level, is to some extent a social phenomenon and

54
reflects the

RELIGION AS A FACT
development of the society in which
National religion, with
its
it

func-

tions.

Religion gives a certain expression and sanction to
political

the mores of the group.
affiliation,
its

and its rigid traditions, tends to be conservative and to act on the assumption that its values are ultimate and eternal. There is, therefore, some ground for W. K. Wright's repeated assertion that religion is an "endeavor to secure the conservation of socially recogpriestly class,

nized values."
ligion.

31

In general, this

is

true of national re-

Yet even on

this level, the scriptures of all religions

contain moral ideals which are far ahead of the approved
practices of the times.
criticize

There

is

a tendency in religion to

the

socially

recognized values and to substitute
this

higher ones.
for

We

have already had occasion to notice
with the substitution of animal

fact in connection

sacrifice

human

sacrifice;

and we

shall find that prophetic re-

ligion substitutes spiritual idealism for animal sacrifice.
rise of
is

The
of

moral conceptions in Egypt higher than the mores

discussed in Breasted's excellent work,

The Dawn
it

Conscience.

As

religion

moves from the

national-priestly
as con-

stage to the universal-prophetic, the description of
server of socially approved values or

mores becomes more
critic of

and more inadequate.
social

Religion then becomes the

custom, as

is

illustrated in the defiance of

King Ahab

by Micaiah ben Imlah (i Kings 22), the attacks of Isaiah and other prophets on the mores of their day, and in the rejection of the caste system by Buddha.
(7) Soul

and immortality.
is

The

belief

in

the survival
Its

of bodily death

present in most religions.

earliest

form, as reflected, for instance, in Greek conceptions of the

underworld or in the
represents the

Biblical story of the witch of

Endor,

life after

death

as

being pale, wretched, and

undesirable.
31 Wright,

So true

is

this that in

some

religions, like that

SPR, 41.

—
RELIGION AS A FACT
of
Israel,

55

the

life

of the soul after death played substantially
interest

no

part at

all,

and

the national or religious
in the

was centered on the survival of group in this world. But notably
immortality (based on the
to

Egyptian, and to some extent in other national

religions, the idea of a blessed

"free" soul of spiritism)

came
life, it

occupy a central place in

was thought, those who had religion. In the future lived good lives in this world would enjoy the favor of the gods and eternal bliss. The belief in immortality has had its fullest development on the universal-prophetic level. (8) Gods. Most religions above the primitive level express their faith in the value of existence

through

belief in

gods.
that
is,

National
it

religion

is

almost
gods.

always polytheistic

These gods often are thought of as in one family; the Greek Zeus is "father of gods and men." The early stages of Hebrew religion were
recognizes
certainly polytheistic, as
is

many

implied in the allusion to sons

of

God

(or of the gods)

who married

daughters of

men

(Gen. 6:1-2).

In most national religions there were male

and female deities: Zeus and Hera of Greece, Jupiter and Juno of Rome, Osiris and Isis of Egypt. Often, too, there were groups of gods constituting a trinity, as Isis, Osiris, and their son Horus; or Agni (fire), Varuna (rain), and Mitra (the sun), in India. On the one hand, there was almost
everywhere a tendency to the endless multiplication of minor deities in the pantheon; on the other hand, there

was an opposing tendency among thoughtful
religious leaders in Egypt, in India, in Babylonia,

priests

and and Greece

not only to regard the gods as closely related, but to hold
that the different gods

were simply names for one God. Thus there was a gradual movement from polytheism toward monotheism, a belief in one God as the sole deity. One stage of this movement is called henotheism, the belief
that although there are

many

gods, only one

is

to be

wor-

56

RELIGION AS A FACT

if the many gods are worshiped one at a time,, we have kathenotheism. In Israel the movement from polytheism through henotheism to monotheism was more

shiped; or

rapid than in any other religion.
§ 6.

History of Religion: Universal (Prophetic)
survey of religion in

its primitive-tribal and in itsshown, on the one hand, that religion is a world-wide phenomenon that everywhere exhibits similar traits, and, on the other hand, that it is not static but is in process of constant development. One of

The

national-priestly stages has

the most remarkable phases of

its

evolution
religion

is

to be

found

in the rise of universal prophetic

in the period

from the eighth through the fourth centuries before Christ, which witnessed, as George Foot Moore has said, "a maxi-

mum

in the tides of religion."

32

Broadly speaking, the previous stage of religion had been

under the
ritualistic,
b.c.

guidance

of

priests,

particularistic,
five centuries

national,

and formal.

During the

from 750

there prevailed a

new movement under

the guidance

of prophets, universal in outlook, individualistic rather than

than ritualistic, and intellectual and mystical rather than formal. The new movement also turned away from polytheism toward a monotheistic or (in some cases) an atheistic religion, although the atheistic phase was temporary in every case. The table shown on the following page will bring out the world-wide nature of the prophetic movement. The educated reader will be familiar with most of the names appearing in this table, and he is referred for full details to the standard histories of religion and of philosophy.
nationalistic, ethical rather
32 Moore, HR, I, ix. Galloway discusses the same point in PR, 131-138. See Knudson, BLP, Leslie, PTS, Cohon, PRO, and McDonald, HPG, for the Hebrew-

contribution.

RELIGION AS A FACT
ISRAEL
8th cent.

57

GREECE
Hesiod (850)

PERSIA

INDIA

CHINA

Amos 750
Hosea 750 E 750
Isaiah 735

7th cent.

D 650 Jeremiah 620
Ezekiel 600
II Is.

Zoroaster 630

6th cent.

(40-55) 550

Orphic Mysteries 550 Pythagoras 550

Mahavira 569

Lao-tse 574

Xenophanes 550
Heraclitus 514
5th cent.
Ill Is.

Buddha 530

Confucius 520

(56-66) 450 P 5°°

Empedocles 460
Socrates 430

Upanishads 500 on

Moh

Ti 470

Plato 397
jth cent.

Aristotle

354

(Note: dates indicate approximately

when

the

man

reached the age of 30.)

A

brief explanation of the

main

traits

of the

movement

will suffice for the purposes of philosophy of religion.

(1) Prophetic.

The movement

is

prophetic.

The word
notion of a

prophet means one prophet
essential.

who

speaks forth;
is

the

as a foreteller of future events

secondary and un-

is one who declares on his own what he believes to be a divine truth, derived primarily from his own experience and reflection. Because that experience often came to the prophet with overwhelming force and was above the level of life as he knew it,

A

prophet, then,

responsibility

he often regarded

Whether
is

it as the voice of God, a divine revelation. the prophet was or was not right in this assumption one of the problems of philosophy of religion. But

whether his experience came through reflection on social and political injustice (as with Amos), or through domestic affliction (as with Hosea), or through war and disaster (as with Isaiah), or through ecstasy (as with the Orphics), or through reason (as with the Greek philosophers, the writers
of the Upanishads,

and Lao-tse), or through psychological

58

RELIGION AS A FACT
Buddha), or
(as

analysis of the experience of desire (as with

through moral theory
with Zoroaster),
(2) Universal.
all

with Confucius), or through

observation of the conflict of good and evil in nature (as

prophets were firmly convinced that

they were spokesmen of divine truth.

The

truths

which they perceived were
prophet,

almost without exception on a broad, international, superracial level.

The
it,

first literary

Amos, begins

his

message by declaring that nations which behave unjustly
will sufler for
his

own

nation, the Israelitic, most of

all,

because of

its

opportunity for better living.

God, he

teaches,

guides the Philistines and the Ethiopians as well as the

Hebrews. Mahavira (founder of the Jainist sect of India) and Buddha both opposed the oppressive caste system of Brahmanism. The Greek appeal to reason was an appeal
to

what
are

is

universally

no

race or nation.

human, the exclusive The problems with which

property of
the prophets
of
social

deal

universal

human problems—problems

justice

and means of conquering

selfishness, ignorance,

and

the fear of insecurity and death.
(3) Individualistic.

movement was
tive

universal

At the same time that the prophetic it was also individualistic. Primias a

man was
The

important only

member
almost

of his clan or

tribe.

individual

counted

for

nothing.

In

national religion the worshiper

the solitary soul;
the group

was the group rather than the individual was tied to the group and
the
soil.

was
soil

tied to

"Blut

und Boden"
in the
shall

the

blood and

of National Socialism,

were

thought
sing Jere-

of the exiled Psalmist

who

wrote,

"How

we

hovah's song in a foreign land?"
ligion of prophetism
to his

But the universal

was a direct relation of the individual God, not dependent on priest or temple or rite. This

aspect of the prophetic

movement

is

especially exemplified

by Jeremiah.

Nationalistic religion

had

glorified the tern-

RELIGION AS A FACT
pie.

59

But Jeremiah

said,

"Trust ye not in lying words, say-

ing,

The temple

of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the

temple of Jehovah are these.
your ways and your doings
dwell in
.

For
.
.

if

ye thoroughly
I

amend

then will

cause you to

this place." (Jer. 7:4-7)
sacrifices,

He

declared that

God gave
the
in

no command about
inner
life; "I

but asked only obedience to
Religion for
their

the divine voice (Jer. 7:22, 23).
will put
I

him was
parts,

my

law in

inward

and

their heart will
is

write

it" (Jer.

31:33)-

This individualism

akin to the Socratic appeal to reason, and to the teaching
it is

The Hebrew

wrong than to do wrong. Buddha both teach that "the reward a man reaps accords with his deeds." The teachings of the prophetic movement thus appeal to universal
of Plato that
better to suffer

Ezekiel and the Indian

humanity.

As has already been implied, the prophetic movement turns away from forms and ceremonies as the
(4) Ethical.

Prophetism universally and social justice. The Golden Rule of Jesus is anticipated by Buddha who taught that one 33 should treat others as he treats himself. Confucius often said, "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do Lao-tse taught, "Recompense injury with kindto others." Zoroaster declared, "Whatever thou dost not apness." prove for thyself, do not approve for anyone else." Respect for the rights of others, cooperation rather than competition, economic and political justice, are the world-wide themes of the prophetic movement. Instead of relying on tradition, the (5) Intellectual. prophetic movement respects and encourages the thought of the individual. In Mahavira and Buddha the prophetic movement is even more intellectual than it is religious. So indifferent were these two prophets to ordinary religious conessence of religion to the ethical.
teaches kindness, altruism,
33

For

this

and other

parallels,

with their sources, see

Hume, WLR, 265-266.

60

RELIGION AS A FACT
scriptures of early

ventions that they both founded an atheistic type of religion,

and the

Buddhism

are replete with intel34

and epistemological problems. Likewise, the anonymous writers of the Upani35 than Buddha, develop a highly shads, more metaphysical Lao-tse and Confucius, intellectual conception of religion. while more respectful of tradition, are critical, creative, and open-minded in their thinking. Greek philosophers, especially Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, attack traditional beliefs and subject all religious concepts to the test of reason.
lectual analysis of psychological, moral,

Less well

known

is

the fact that the

Hebrew prophets
say, "I hate,

turned away from tradition in the interest of intellectual
independence.
I

Amos
the

(750

b.c.)

makes God

despise your feasts" (5:21).

Isaiah (29:13, about 705 b.c),

according to
of

improved rendering of the American

Standard Version, has

me

is

them."
rejected

God declare, with scorn, "Their fear commandment of men which hath been taught Wisdom that consists of knowledge of tradition is
a
consists of a reasonable
social experience.

by Isaiah for a wisdom that

interpretation of religious

and other

In-

deed, God's
reason,

own attitude is "Come now, and let

represented as an appeal to
us reason together, saith JeIf

hovah"

(1:18, about 701 b.c).

these

rendered, as some think,

"Come now, and

words should be let us accuse one
is

another," the atmosphere of free discussion

even more Jeremiah

evident than in the dignified older translation.

goes so far (in 7:8, about 608 b.c.) as to appear to denounce
the teaching, or at least the application of the teaching of

the book of Deuteronomy as "lying words." The whole body of prophetic thought, while poetic and sometimes ecstatic in form, is intellectual and antitraditional in con34 Epistemology
limits of
3r
real.
'

is

that branch of philosophy

which deals with the nature and
and
rational description of the

knowledge.
is

Metaphysics

the attempt to give a coherent

The

belief in

God

is

a metaphysical belief.

RELIGION AS A FACT
tent.
36

61

So, too, the thought of Zoroaster in Persia, attended
it is

though

by imaginative
is

aspects,

is

a genuine intellectual
evil.

wrestle with the problem of good and

Ahura-Mazda,
In

the god of light,

approached by truth and goodness.

the old Zoroastrian confession of faith (Yasna XII), the intellectual attitude
is

expressed in the vow, "I promise well-

thought thought, well-spoken word, well-done deed."
It

cannot be denied that the national-priestly stage of

religion

had

also

developed

a

high type of intellectual

life.

But the learning of the priests was mostly historical and traditional; independent thought was chiefly esoteric (as with Pythagoras). In contrast to this, the intellectual life
of the prophetic
tradition,

movement was
It is

free

and open,

critical of

and relevant

to actual life. to say that the pro-

(6) Mystical.

no contradiction

movement was both intellectual and mystical at the same time. After all, the intellectual and the mystical exphetic

perience of

God

are both forms of the inner life in contrast

with the external forms and group ceremonies which were
almost the whole of primitive and national religion.
Mysti-

by the greater development of the individual experience of prayer (Jeremiah and Socrates illustrate this phase) in the vision of inner enlightenment and
cism
is

illustrated

;

the consequent sense of mission, such as was experienced

by

Isaiah in the temple at Jerusalem (6:1-5, 740 B.C.),

by

Jeremiah, apparently in early
b.c), by

youth

(1:4-10,

about 626

Amos when

tending his sheep (7:15, before 750
the famous "Bo" or "Bodhi" tree

b.c), by

Buddha under

(about 530 b.c; see Carus,

age of

thirty,

when he

received the vision thrice

GB, 29-34), Dv Zoroaster at the on one day

(about 630 b.c; see Barton,

RW,

123).
it is

The
36

goal of the prophetic religion was,
Jeremiah,

true, pre-

To quote

"The

false

pen of the

scribes

hath wrought falsely"

(8:8).

See McDonald,

HPG, and Knudson, BLP.

62

RELIGION AS A FACT
social

dominantly moral and
rapturous vision of
religion

rather than mystical.

The

extreme mysticism which forgets the world entirely in a

God

is

characteristic of other aspects of

more

related to the priestly.

Extreme mysticism
also cultivated, as
priestly

is

often a refuge of souls to

whom
it

the formalism of priestly
is

religion has been unendurable;

we

have seen, in the sacramental aspect of
sentatives of the prophetic,

religion.

Nevertheless, the most intellectual and antiformal repre-

men

led

by

their reflections to a

like Plato and Lao-tse, are view of the universe which

eventuates in an exalted mystical consciousness of unity.
Socrates

was warned by

his

"daimonion" when he was

about to do wrong.

Early phases of the prophetic move-

ment
a

in Israel appeared to identify the Spirit of

God with

involuntary psychological phenomena, as

when

Saul joined

band

of prophets in their "prophesying" (i
b.c.)
;

about 1030

Sam. 10:10-13, and Ezekiel experienced certain abnormal

psychic states (as 4:4-8, about 593 b.c). In general, however, the mystical experiences of the prophets were not of
the extreme or abnormal type, but were an emotional support or exemplification of the ethical aims of the prophets.
(7) Monotheistic.

The

prophetic

movement was unanistill

mous
stage.

in rejecting the traditional polytheism of the priestly

Although Socrates and Plato

used the termi-

nology of the Greek pantheon, their belief in one
evident from their teaching.
that
!;T

God was

The charge

against Socrates

he was "guilty of rejecting the gods acknowledged by

the state"

was

literally correct;

he had a better god than

any in the
of

state creed: one, instead of

many; good,
traditional.

instead

licentious;

rational,

instead

of

Aristotle

hardly deigned even to mention the names of Apollo and

Zeus in his serious discussions of
as a
37

God he
;

regarded theology

branch of metaphysics, not of
I,

priestly lore,

and

his

Xenophon, Memorabilia,

i,

i.

RELIGION AS A FACT
logic permitted only

63

one god.

s8

It is

interesting to note that

spiritual monotheism, expressing itself in ridicule of the anthropomorphic symbols of idolatry, was formulated contemporaneously (about 550 b.c.) by Xenophanes in Greece

and by the exiled
lon.
39

Israelitic

prophet, Second Isaiah in Babyit

Polytheism was rejected because

was immoral,

irrational,

and

unspiritual.

Shang-ti or heaven of Confucius, the
aster,

The Way of Lao-tse, the Ahura-Mazda of ZoroIsrael all repre-

and the Jehovah of the prophets of sented the concept of one supreme, spiritual

deity.

It is

true

that Zoroaster also believed in an evil power,

was opposed by Ahura-Mazda and his Mahavira and Buddha were themselves
aster's

Ahriman, who followers, and that
But Zoro-

atheists.

idea

was hardly

less

compatible with monotheism
Jainists

than the traditional Christian devil, and the
their sects

and
to

Buddhists soon rejected the atheism of the founders of

by elevating Mahavira and Buddha themselves

the position of monotheistic deities.
§ 7.

History of Religion: Living Religions
religions.

(1)

Continued existence of several older
is
is

Since

the purpose of this book
cal,

philosophical rather than histori-

our interest in the history of religions

not in the minute

details of

each religion but rather in those facts which ex-

press or

imply
are

beliefs

about the nature of the real and
importance.
a hint that he
Jaeger,

therefore

of

philosophical

The

priestly

38 Jaeger calls attention to the special

problem raised

in Aristotle's Metaphysics,

Book Lambda, Chap. VIII, where there is polytheism on astronomical grounds. See

may have returned to ARI, 342-367. (The reader

should not rely on the inaccurate exposition in Fuller, HP, I, 153.) Jaeger points out that Aristotle's polytheistic line of thought "involved him in inextricable contradictions" (351). 39 Compare Is.

41

with the fragments of Xenophanes.

Note, however,

that:

monotheism in history (aside from the "high gods" of primitive times) was in Egypt, when Ikhn-Aton (Amenhotep IV) became a monotheistic reformer (1375-1358 b.c). Thus the first religion with a personal founder was monotheistic.
the first clear case of

;

64

RELIGION AS A FACT
stages

saw the founding of several religions that are still in existence. There remains for our purpose only a brief consideration of the great religions which have arisen since the prophetic movement and obviously as a continuation of it namely Christianity and Mohammedan-

and prophetic

—

—

ism.

The

relation of the world's living religions to the
it is

development of religion as we have studied 40 by the following table:
(2)
is

illustrated

Christianity

.

The

Christian religion, the one which

best

known

to

Jesus, called Christ (the
siah,

most readers of this book, was founded by Greek word for the Hebrew Mes,,

meaning "anointed
priests

his religion as

about 30 a.d. Jesus thought of continuous with the Hebrew religion of the
)
5

Old Testament

closer to the prophetic than to the priestly type,

and prophets, although he was much and all the
prophetic religion appear in
of his thought were: (a)
his
re-

main

characteristics

of

teaching.

The main

traits

jection of political, military, particularistic,

and

nationalistic

views of religion, and acceptance of himself

as a spiritual

Messiah (see the temptation narratives in Mt. and Lk.)
(b) monotheism regarded as the universal fatherhood of

being disputed whether he thought
the account of his resurrecthinkers.

of this as a physical or a purely spiritual coming).

Miracles ascribed to
tion have caused

him and

problems for

many modern

With

Harnack, we must distinguish "the gospel of Jesus" from
"the gospel about Jesus."
is

The

gospel of Jesus, as just stated,

to

be found in those parts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and

John which criticism regards
torical evidence proves

him

to

most authentic; the hishave been a man of extraoras

dinary simplicity and integrity of character,

a

religious

and moral personality unequalled in history, regardless of any special religious valuation that faith has set on him.
But Christianity does not consist entirely of the gospel of
Jesus.

"The gospel about

Jesus"

is

the teaching of Paul of

Tarsus and of other Christian thinkers,
but also a divine redeemer.

who saw

in Jesus

not merely a wise and good teacher and spiritual Messiah,

Paul thought pictorially of

man

as a captive of sin,

needing to be ransomed; and the

death of Christ was that ransom.

These and other figures of thought that in Jesus was expressed the divine initiative in saving man from his "lost" condition, and through him was
given the guarantee of divine love, forgiveness, and cooperation.

By it, man was redeemed. speech were used to convey the

Not personal

success
is

in

attaining

perfection

(works), but faith in
tion.

God

made

the condition of salva-

on the church organization. The history of Christianity has seen many developments of the thought of redemption or atonement for sin, and also of the idea of incarnation (the view that in Jesus, God was made flesh) 41 there have been varying emphases on the gospel of Jesus and the gospel about him. All Christians have been united in a sense of loyalty to Jesus and in acPaul also laid
stress
;

41 Incarnation

is

a

common

concept in the Orient, especially in Hinduism.

66

RELIGION AS A FACT

ceptance of his spiritual leadership, although there have

been increasing differences in other respects. The contrasts between Mark and John or between James and Paul

Testament are obvious. Gnostic and Monplagued the second century. The great between Arius and Athanasius (Council of Nice, struggle 325 a.d.), and that between Pelagius and Augustine (a cenin

the

New

tanist

heresies

tury later), evidence conflict of opinion about Pauline ideas.

Abelard, the mysticism of Eckhart, and the divergences between Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas on intellect and will, show the continued independence of Christian thought. Since the Reformation (Martin Luther at Worms, 1521), ecclesiastical divisions within Christianity have increased,
of Erigena, the searching questions of

The pantheism

although the twentieth century has seen

new movements

toward "ecumenical" unity.

Mohammedanism. In the curred the Hegira of Mohammed,
(3)

year 622 a.d. there ochis flight

from Mecca
subjected.

as

a result of the persecutions to
followers, the
year.

which he was

His

Moslems, date their time reckoning from this The teachings of Mohammed were based on knowlJesus
to the
says,

edge of and respect for Judaism and Christianity (every

Moslem when he mentions
name") and on opposition
Arabia of his day.

"Blessed
idolatry

be his
of the
strict

gross

His chief doctrines were: (a)

monotheism ("Allah is Allah"), which rejected Christian ideas that there was a Trinity and that God has a Son, (b)

Mohammed
lation

as the

prophet through

whom

the final reve(c) absolute

comes

submission to the will of

("Mohammed is his prophet"), God (Islam), (d)

regularity in
pil-

prayer at stated times, with the face toward Mecca, (e)

grimage

to

Mecca,

(f) abstinence from alcohol, and

(g)

belief in the

reward of the faithful

in a very physical heaven.

Although the prophet

lived but ten years after the Hegira,

RELIGION AS A FACT
he had

67

won

the allegiance of

all

Arabia in that period.

Un-

der his successors, the Caliphs, the

Moslem

religion be-

came

associated

with military conquests

("Islam or the

sword") and with a high culture based not merely on the sacred "revelation" in the Koran, but also on the heritage
of

Hellenism.

Al-Ghazali

(1059-1109)
traits in

was the
with

greatest

philosopher of Islam, having
different as Saint

common

men

as

Augustine and David Hume.

Every

stuIs-

dent of history knows the influence of the "Saracens."

lam, always a missionary religion, retained the Caliphate
until

March

3,

1924,

Mejid from the

The

varieties of

new Turkey deposed Abdul him without a successor. thought within Mohammedanism almost
when
the
office

and

left

equal those of Christianity, but since the Middle

Islam has been

less less

open

to the influences of science
its

Ages and

philosophy and
tianity.

liberal in

thought than has Chris-

§

8.

Psychology of Religion: Psychology of Conversion

In our search for the facts about religion,

we

turn

now
have
con-

from the
seen

historical to the psychological approach.

We
itself

how

religion has developed

and expressed
practices.

cretely in institutions, beliefs,
as

and

In recent times,

we saw

in § 2 of this chapter, there has developed the

science of psychology of religion.

The

first

topic to

be

was the experience of "conversion" the transition from an irreligious or nonreligious life to a religious one. In the eighteenth century Jonathan Edwards had written careful descriptions of his own conversion and of similar experiences of many others. Toward the middle of the nineteenth century, Horace Bushnell (1802-1876)
investigated
raised questions about the necessity of definite conversion, as

—

that ascribed to Saint Paul in the

the

Book of Acts. About same time, evangelists were asking when the conversion

68

RELIGION AS A FACT
it

of their hearers occurred,

uniformity in dating

and results showed considerable between the ages of twelve and
during adolescence.

and acquaintance with God, which is closely There is, accordingly, a discrepancy between the early studies, which termed conversion a normal adolescent phenomenon, and the later, for which it is exceptional. Clark thinks that "stern theological and faulty religious education tend to produce the Definite Crisis experience." " Others believe that the drop in the curve of conversions is due to social causes which should be opposed by religion. Psychologists agree, however, that religion appears normally both as a natural growth and as a crisis experience.
tion of a society,
related to the social experience.
42

See Clark, PRA, 34-51, esp. 47-48.

See Stolz, PRL, 219-223 for a practical

interpretation of the facts.
43 See Coe, PR, 44 Clark, PRA,

171-174.
147.

See Thouless, IPR, 187-204.

RELIGION AS A FACT
§ 9.

69

Psychology of Religion: Psychology of Mysticism
is

By mysticism

meant the

direct experience of

what

is

believed to be divine reality, as contrasted with intellectual
belief in religion or

moral devotion
in

to religious causes.

In

most

religions, as

we found
is

our study of the prophetic

movement, there
for examples)
Lao-tse's

a mystical element.
Is.

Many

scriptures

record mystical experiences (see
;

6:1-13 and 2 Cor. 12:1-5,

the classics of religious literature, such as

writings, the

Bhagavad

Gita,

Saint Augustine's

Confessions,

Thomas
all

a Kempis's Imitatio Christi, the of

logia Germanica,

Gandhi, are

and the modern writings permeated with a sense of the

TheoTagore and

actual presence

of the divine in

human

experience.

It is

natural that psy-

chology of religion should early turn
mysticism

—both

its attention toward on account of the abundance of source

material and on account of the inherent religious importance
of the experience.

James's GifTord Lectures in 190 1 and 1902 are largely de-

voted to a study of mysticism, which he called "the
chapter."

vital
is

His
it

list

of the traits of mystical experience

so

famous that
bility (it
it

should be given.

These

traits are:
this,

(1) Ineffa-

cannot be imparted in words; in
a state of

we may
;

add,
(2)

is

like sense qualities, such as yellow, sweet, loud)
(it is
;

knowledge, affirming insight or illumination) (3) Transiency (it can be sustained at most for an hour or two; resentment against this inevitable tranNoetic quality
siency
is

expressed in

Mark

9:5-9)

;

(4) Passivity (the mystic

may
as if
state

prepare for the experience, but

when

it

comes he
45

feels

grasped by a superior power; this contrasts the mystic

and religious action). James's description is accepted by most psychologists. However, there are few psychologists who are satisfied to
belief

with religious

leave

philosophical problems to philosophers.
own
account, see

James H.

45 For James's

VRE, 379-382.

70

RELIGION AS
to

A

FACT
is

Leuba, a lifelong student of psychology of religion,
even more concerned
ophies than he
is

perhaps

expose fallacious religious philosI

to describe the actual psychological
a

acts.

James has been charged with
lief.

predisposition in favor of be-

Leuba appears to have a predisposition toward doubt. famous for Chapter 11 of his The Psychology Religious Mysticism, in which he shows that a mystical of

He

is

especially

ecstasy

produced by certain drugs gives an impression of
life,

enlarged and perfected
ticism proper,
lUit
it

similar to that ol religious myson philosophical rather than psychological grounds that this (act must be interpreted; otherwise psychologists could inter that there is no real world
is

merely because (here are hallucinations.'"
§
10.

Psychology of Religion: Psychology of Prayer and

Worship
Practically speaking,

the

mystical

experience

is

usually

gained (or sought) in the experiences of prayer ami worship.

For various
facts ol

reasons,

psychologists have not

examined the

ordinary prayer and worship so carefully as they

have the more striking phases of mystical experience. The only first-class book on prayer is Friedrich Hciler's Das

and J. Edgar Park. Readers of this chapter will rind the book especially interesting because of its combination of the historical ami the psychological, and its treatment of primitive prayer, ritual prayer, prayer in mysticism, in prophetic religion, and in worship. As W. K. Wright points out, prayer is psychor logically in the "conversational" form a dialogue between As in all conversaone's self and a "thou" who is addressed.
'

Gebet, translated as Prayer by Samuel

McComb

—

tion, real or
46 Leuba,
in

imaginary, the entire prayer
XII. "Religion, Science,
ol

is

a

psychological
is

PRM, Chap.

and Philosophy,"

.in

attempt

cope wuli philosophical interpretations
47

the facts ol

mystical experience,

Wright, SPR, Chap. XVI.

"Monologues"

arc to he regarded as meditation

rather than prayer.

RELIGION AS A FACT
process.

7r

Prayer often enhances the psychological well-being

of the one

who

prays, adds to his energies

and gives him

hope and

a feeling of the

purpose of

life.

If

often also results

in improved bodily health. Whether prayer is divinely "answered" and whether the effects of prayer are due to "subjective" or to "objective" causes to our subconscious or to God or to God's using subjective means are questions

—

—

for philosophy, not for

psychology

to deal
it

with.

The

psy-

chological fact

is

that prayer

exists, that
it

takes the form of

dialogue, the "thou-form"; also, that

may

appear

as petias

tion (predominantly so in early religions), as
intercession, or as praise.

communion,

Worship

is

an experience which usually includes prayer,
silent

but adds other factors such as

meditation, ritual, music

(both instrumental and vocal), reading and interpretation

and sometimes the religious dance. Elsewhere the present writer has analyzed worship as consisting of four attitudes, namely, contemplation (meditation
of religious literature,

on the divine), revelation (insight into truth believed to be
divinely

imparted),

communion

(the

consciousness of a
"'

new life which grows out of the worship experience). The study of worship thus far has been carried on chiefly by philosophers of religion and by those ecclesiastically in49 terested in the practical improvement of worship. The
personal relation to God), and fruition (the
1

chief exception

is

the philosopher-psychologist,

J.

B. Pratt,

whose
former

great

distinction
is

work, The between subjective and objective worship.
concerned with the
the sermon,
184
[II,
l<>r
.-1

Religious Consciousness, makes a

The

chiefly

effect of

worship on
Protestant

the individual, the latter with a relation to God.

worship, centering
*8

in

is

said to be chiefly sub-

49 Sec,

Brightman, RV, 173 237, e$p. n't however, Dresser, PR, Chap.
159
[86.

survey

of

the

problem, and

Thouless, It'K,

72
jective;

RELIGION AS A FACT
Catholic worship, centering in the mass, chiefly

objective.
§

n.

Psychology of Religion: Psychology of Individual Types
not until recently that psychology has concerned
itself

It is

intensively with the individual.

"General" psychology was

too general to consider individual differences; practical and

combined to force on differences of temperament, which have been known since antiquity, but also on the unique
theoretical considerations have recently
attention, not only
traits of

each individual.

50

One
by

result of the

modern

in-

vestigation of individual psychology has been various at-

tempts to

classify individuals
little

types.

The

investigators

have, however, arrived at
too individual to
fit

agreement.

Individuals are

neatly into any scheme of typology.

Yet
as

if

the "types" be not taken rigidly, they

may

often serve

guides to the understanding of religious experiences.

James's healthy-minded and sick souls, and Pratt's objective

and subjective worshipers are examples of
psychology has done
conversion

this.

Individual

much

to liberate

modern

religion

from
classi-

a feeling of being constrained to experience one type of

—the

Pauline-crisis type.

Carl G. Jung's

fication into extroverts (those chiefly interested in others or

in things), introverts (those chiefly interested in themselves

or in thought processes), and ambiverts (those in

whom both

interests are strong) affords a background for understanding

"the varieties of religious experience."
individuals
of

The

existence of

widely varying types leads us to expect

widely varying religious experiences.

We

find introverts

who are predominantly intellectual, extroverts predominantly ethical and practical, and ambiverts who seek a synthesis in
their religion.
50 See Allport,

PER.

RELIGION AS A FACT
§
12.

73

Psychology of Religion and the Subconscious
so-called
as

The
such

"New

Psychology," under the influence of

men

Freud, Adler, and Jung, has been largely con-

cerned with exploring the subconscious. The mind has been compared to an iceberg, one-eighth (the field of consciousness)
visible,

seven-eighths

(the

subconscious)

sub-

merged under water. The and action are often thought

life of feeling, desire, emotion,

of as chiefly the result of sub-

conscious processes, "suppressed desires" (as Freud thinks),

longings for superiority (as Adler believes), or the inherited
experience of the race (according to Jung).

The

differing

views of the subconscious held by great authorities should
not lead to the conclusion that there
is

no such

reality.

Ex-

periments with subjects under hypnosis, interpretation of

dreams,

as well as

many

religious experiences,

show conclu-

sively that there are conscious processes

going on in con-

nection with our organism of which our normal consciousness cannot be directly aware, but
infer

from

their effects.

which it has every right to Such conscious processes may be
01

called the subconscious or the unconscious.

While the exploration of the subconscious is valuable for all the light it can shed on prayer, conversion, mysticism, and
other experiences, yet three points of caution need to be

borne in mind by the student.
subconscious (psychoanalysis)
theory, description

(1)

The psychology

of the

is fact and and evaluation, are not clearly distinguished in the minds of its interpreters. It is one thing to say that there is a subconscious relation between love to God and love to one's father; it is quite another to say that belief in God is only a father-complex and hence is false. The

a realm in which

latter

statement

is

an evaluation, a purely philosophical
see Thouless, IPR,

51 For a brief account of the problem, PR, Chaps. Ill and XV.

Chap. VIII, or

Selbie,

74

RELIGION AS A FACT
no place
in psychology.

theory, having

(2)

The

data of

the

New

Psychology have been largely derived from patho-

logical subjects their

who

have selected themselves for attention by
psychiatrists.

need for treatment from

What may

be

true of Dr. Freud's patients

(usually troubled with

sex-

complexes)

may

not be true of Dr. Jung's patients, simply

because the latter were suffering from a somewhat different
type of mental ailment.
(3)

The tendency

of this psychol-

ogy
is,

is

to

reduce

all

religious thinking to rationalizing; that

it

often regards religious beliefs as consisting of arguto support the fulfillment of

ments devised
But
after
all,

our subconscious
reality.

wishes rather than as honest objective thinking about

no thinking can be judged to be objectively true or false on purely psychological grounds. Here is another confusion between psychology and philosophy.
Psychology cannot usurp the place of logic or philosophy of
religion
its

any more than

it

can usurp the place of physics by

study of sensations.

§

13.

Psychology of Religion and Social Psychology
of religion
is

The complexity
tant as are

illustrated

by the many psy-

chological approaches necessary to

comprehend it. Imporindividual psychology and psychology of the
fail

subconscious, they

to describe all the facts of religion
social psychology,

unless supplemented
science

by

another young

which
52

is

a product of the nineteenth
is

and twentieth

centuries.

Social psychology

an investigation of those

conscious processes which arise as a result of the interaction
of

social

two or more persons. Since all historical religions are phenomena, it might appear that psychology of reliis

gion

but a branch of social psychology.
is

Every conversion
a readjustment of

experience

social in the sense that

it

is

52 See Karpf,

ASP,

for an account of

its

development.

RELIGION AS A FACT
the
life to

75

the social situation; mysticism emphasizes the in-

dividual, yet different types of mysticism arise in different
social situations; prayer
is

originally for the group,

and

is

so truly social that in

analyzing

many

of the Biblical Psalms,
is

scholars are unable to determine

whether the one praying

course, socially directed.
his social
to that

an individual or the community. Intercessory prayer is, of Every individual is acted on by

environment and

is

partly defined by his reaction
is

environment.

The

subconscious

not only affected

by present social relations, but is believed by Freud to be largely determined by parental influences in infancy, and by

Jung to be the carrier of the past experience of the race. So important is the social aspect that many, like Comte and certain American religious humanists, as well as others like E. Scribner Ames, interpret religion as exclusively a phenomenon of social psychology. Every social experience, it has been said, is religious, even the cheering at a football game. Exponents of this view have compared God to Uncle

Sam

—both being

social symbols.
it

Over against

this exclusively social view,
life
is

needs to be

pointed out that man's
social-psychological

not wholly determined by

influences.
his

Other sciences point out
acts, his relations to

man's biological heredity,

random

physical nature, his individual inventiveness

and initiative from imitation), his intellectual love of objective truth, his mathematics and his logic and all of these indicate both causes and purposes operative in experience which cannot be defined as
(what Tarde
calls invention, as

distinguished

—

products of social
especially those

psychology.

In

the

higher

religions,

under the influence of the prophetic movement, the relation of the individual to his God and to his religious community is thought of as in some sense a volunLikewise, the higher

tary choice, not a social compulsion.
religions agree in

viewing

social

approval as being often

?6

RELIGION A S A FACT
to

something
true,

be criticized rather than to be sought.

03

Hence

the view of religion as a fact of social psychology, while
is

not the whole truth.

§

14.

Sociology of Religion Religion and Social Groups
:

and Institutions

The French founder
1857),

was

at the

of sociology, Auguste Comte (1798same time the founder of sociology of re-

ligion; for in the latter part of his life

he devoted himself to

an interpretation of religion from a sociological point of view. He went so far as to hold that all religious beliefs

God were really beliefs about social groups, and that the true God, "le grand etre" and the object of real religious devotion, is not an eternal being, creator of the world, but rather is to be identified with humanity. Humanity alone is God, and is alone to be worshiped. It is evident that the views of Comte, and the somewhat similar ones of the German, Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), are not purely scientific, but are a mingling of sociological and philosophical ideas. Comte was a positivist, holding that all metaphysical theories are false; Feuerbach was a metaphysical materialist, perhaps best remembered today by Karl Marx's "theses" in criticism of him. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), an independent French follower of Comte, wrote the first great modern work in sociology of religion; it appeared in French in 1912 and in English translation in 1915, under the title, The Elementary
about gods or

Forms

of the Religious Life.
investigation

He

used the results of anin

thropological
ticular) to
beliefs.

(regarding totemism

par-

show

the social origin and function of religious
rather dogmatically, that the

He
is

holds,

genetic

method
53 See

the only

method
7,

for the study of religion; this

Waterhouse, PRE,

and Thouless, IPR, Chap. XT.

RELIGION AS A FACT
ligious force"
is

77

procedure, he maintains, leads to the conclusion that "re-

only "the sentiment inspired by the group
(229).

in

its

members"

He

holds not only to the social
all

origin of religion, but also to the religious origin of
categories of thought.

our

In his rejection of "divine reason" as
to

an hypothesis not subject

he follows Comte and Feuerbach.

experimental verification (15), All three pointed out imall

portant facts about the social function of religion and

three were right in their view that sociology could not verify
belief in a real

God.

Nevertheless,

all

three committed a
sci-

common

error in failing to distinguish the sociological

ence of religion from the philosophy of religion, which must
use methods and consider data foreign to sociology.

Even

Max Weber,

Joachim Wach, and John Dewey, the chief recent workers in the field, have been unable wholly to
divest themselves of the prejudice

which regards the
to all problems.

social

approach

as the

one and only key

Some

of the chief results of sociology of religion in the following propositions:

Not very long ago we heard of the divine right Today religion, in some countries, must be demostill

cratic; in others, racial; in

others both tsar

and God are
(3) Re-

forbidden for essentially the same social reasons.
ligious officials,

from primitive times
and great

until recently,
54

have

been regarded
tices

also as tribal or national officials.

(4)

The

origin of most ancient
is

social institutions

and prac-

believed to be religious by thinkers as different as
Birth, marriage, family, planting,
and
6.

Durkheim and Hocking.
54

On

this see

Dewey, CF,

60,

78

RELIGION AS A FACT

art, and death were all attended by religious and rituals; man's view of social life has always been colored by his religious feelings/' (5) The interaction between society and religion, without exclusive causation on the part of either, is emphasized by Joachim Wach (ERS). (6) Religion has been a social phenomenon as far back in the

reaping, war,
sanctions

evolution of the race as evidence

is

accessible.

A

further

important point

is

discussed in the following section.

§

15.

Sociology of Religion: Religion and Economic

Forces

The development
and

of economics,

and

especially the

so-

called "materialistic interpretation of history"

by Karl Marx

his followers, has led sociologists of religion to consider

the relations

Marx's view

and

is

between economic conditions and religion. that religion is a product of economic forces used by the exploiting class to keep the proletariat
is

submissive.

It is

"the
56

opium

of the people," at best a refuge
at

from the

realities

of material existence,

worst an en-

slavement to them.
the U.S.S.R.
is

The

influence of this standpoint in
in

epoch-making

modern

history,

and

illus-

trates in itself

the sociological importance of religion.

But
of

objective sociologists, while admitting the importance

economic conditions in their influence on religion, incline to agree with Wach's view (stated above) that religion influis influenced by social and economic condiSuch a standpoint was expressed in Max Weber's great work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capital-

ences as well as
tions.

55 See

ligion as "the

"religion

Durkheim, EFRL, 418-419. Note Hocking's famous description of remother of the Arts" (MGHE, 14); also his very frank statement that has fostered everything valuable to man and has obstructed everything"
11).

(MGHE,
56
this

The

reader of

German
in

will find the chief utterances of

subject collected

a

handy
is

little

volume, Marx-Engels,

Marx and Engels on ROV. The best

English exposition of the view

in Calverton,

PG.

RELIGION AS A FACT
ism:"'

79

This

is

generally regarded as the most important
It is

contribution to sociology of religion yet made.

an

at-

tempt to show that Protestantism was more favorable to the development of modern capitalism than was Catholicism, and within Protestantism, Calvinism more so than other

forms of
weight

58

belief.

A

philosophy of religion will give
factor,

full

to the
it

economic
its

but

it

would not be

philos-

ophy

if

confined

attention to any one factor in ex-

perience to the exclusion of others.

Economic

forces are a
religion."
9

datum, but not the only datum, of philosophy of

§

16.

Sociology of Religion: Religion and Social

Reforms
Sociologists have not

made adequate

investigation into the
as

history of social reforms.

Such investigation

has been

made, however, shows that religion at its best has very often We itself with the reforming of social abuses. have seen how Buddha opposed the caste system and how
concerned
the

Hebrew prophets The Hebrew religion

attacked the oppressors of the poor.
in particular has

emphasized philanfavored
classes,

thropy and alleviation of the
religion has given

state of the less

and has opposed usury and other

abuses.

The

Christian

woman

a higher place in society, has

done
ini-

much toward
tiated

the

undermining
for

of slavery as an institution,

has opposed the social abuse of alcohol, has repeatedly

movements

world peace, and has been the source
in

57 It appeared in

German

1904— 1905 and

in

English translation in

1920

(PESO).
tion with

G. C. Cell made an able investigation of the same problem in connecJohn Wesley. See the chapter on "The Decay of Religion" in his RJW, 363—441. MacArthur, EEJW, is also illuminating. A critique of Weber's view is found in Robertson, REI. See Dewey, CF, 79—80. 59 Even an extremist like Rosa Luxemburg wrote to Franz Mehring that "your brilliant pen has taught our workers that socialism is not a bread and butter problem, but a cultural movement." Mehring, KM, ix.

58

The

late

80

RELIGION AS A FACT
many
socialistic or quasi-socialistic

of

experiments, from the

first Christian community (Acts 2:43-45) to Brook Farm and the contemporary world-wide Christian interest in co60 operatives, as well as repeated movements under the name

of Christian socialism.
61

All universal religions

rise

above

the nationalistic standpoint and favor some form of inter-

Hence the modern struggle between the and religion, as illustrated by totalitarian conflicts with Judaism and Christianity, and the conflicts of a different kind in countries like China and India where a sense of nanationalism.
state

tionalism

is

just arising.

Passive resistance, nonjuring, conlike

scientious objecting,

and the

are forms of

religious

protest

against

political

injustice.

universities science,

and

hospitals,

Religion has founded and has often promoted the arts,

and philosophy.
social

No

complete account of the relation of religion to

reforms can be written without considering the frequent opposition of priests

and churches

to social advance.

Religion

has often sought to crush

scientific

thought, has opposed

philosophical freedom, has stood with the vested economic
interests against the needy, has

conducted cruel Crusades,

and has sanctified political wars. It is problematic whether these phenomena reveal the true nature of religion or whether they show that the religious consciousness is often
unable or unwilling to
assert itself against the pressure of

the secular environment, although saints and martyrs have

been shining exceptions. The former view is accepted by Communistic and other critics of religion; the latter is held

by many thinkers more friendly to religious belief. The question amounts to this: Who were more truly religious,
the Medicis or the Quakers?
60

One

of the

few

investigations of this topic

is

the C.O.P.C.E.

Commission ReFor a
critical

port, Historical Illustrations of the Social Effects of Christianity.

treatment, see Westermarck,
61 See Bentwich, RFI.

CM.

RELIGION AS A FACT
§ 17.

8r

Chief Religious Beliefs

Having completed a very hasty survey of religion as a fact, we have now to summarize the results of this survey for the purposes of philosophy of religion. Such a summary must take the form of a statement of essential religious beliefs. Rites and ceremonies as such are neither true nor false, right nor wrong, but are merely more or less effective means for producing or mediating what religious belief holds to be true and right. The following list indicates the chief religious beliefs which we have found: (1) The belief that there are experiences of great and permanent value. This belief is summed up in what Hoffding has taken
to

be the basis of

all religion,

namely, the

axiom of the conservation of values. (2) The belief in gods or God. Most religions from the start rest on belief in divine beings, or a divine being, viewed

We have as a source of value, if not the source of all value. found that even those religions, like Jainism, Buddhism, and Communism, which begin with atheism tend to develop a
belief in

some

objective source of value, that

is

to say, a god.

(3)

The

belief that there is evil as well as value.
is

All

religions recognize that there
to

something in the universe
primitive
religion,
it

be opposed

and

feared.

In

is

hard
belief

to distinguish

in

good from evil in the taboo; but the demons, Satan, Ahriman, sin, the need of reimply recognition of something
evil.

demption, longing for individual conversion

reform
evil,

all

and social Even a
reality of

religion like Christian Science,

which denies the

recognizes

it

in the fact of "error of mortal

mind"

and

in "malicious

animal magnetism."

(4)

The

belief that

man

is

a soul or spiritual being, not
All religions have found the

merely a physical organism.
chief

meaning

of existence in man's spiritual nature

and

82

RELIGION AS A FACT
than in any purely material condition or
idolatry
is

attitude, rather

possession.

The most crude

always regarded as
spirit.

a relation of the
(5)

human

spirit to a

divine

The

belief that there is
is

purpose in

human
it

existence.

This purpose

thought of

as

being for the group, and in
is

higher religions, also for the individual;

not merely
is

man's purpose, but also God's.
a relation of
the whole

Thus

religion

always

man

to the

whole of existence or

at least to

which he believes to be supremely important and worthy of his purposive devotion. Even when belief in purpose is faint or absent, its effects abide in the form of belief in man's membership in a larger whole on which he depends.
(6)
belief
as

The
is

belief that the
all

human

soul

is

immortal.

This

not shared by
seen, but

religious individuals
so

we have
(7)

it is

and groups, nearly universal that it must be
This
is

considered characteristic of religion.

The

belief in valid religious experience.

the

conviction that there are experiences, such as sacraments,
conversion, worship, mystical

the religious person comes into actual
tion with the divine being.

moments, and prayer, when and immediate rela-

Sacred scriptures are largely

records of supposedly normative religious experiences.
(8)

The

belief in religious action.

This appears in the

believer's faith that his religion should, either partially or

wholly, regulate his conduct both individual and

social.

So important
lectual.
It is

is

this that religion

may

well be called priintel-

marily practical, rather than primarily emotional or
clear that these eight religious beliefs all

imply that

philosophical propositions of certain sorts are true.
belief in great

The

and permanent value implies a distinction between true and false values. The belief in God implies
a metaphysical theory of reality as a whole, since

God

is

RELIGION AS A FACT
thought of
as the

83

ground of existence and

of value.

The
spirit

belief in evil presupposes a theory of value

and

raises the

question of dualism.

The

belief in

man's soul or

involves philosophical psychology.

The

belief in purpose,

human

from the philosophical problem of mechanism and teleology. The belief in immoror divine,
is

inseparable

tality is

incompatible with materialistic philosophy or psyis

chology, but

consistent with certain forms of realism,

dualism, pluralism, and idealism.
experience from error and illusion.
action presupposes a metaphysics

and an ethics in order to and the aims of action. The remainder of this book will be an endeavor to explore the chief philosophical problems occasioned by the facts of
define the arena
religious belief.

No

philosophical investigation could
fact, for
fact.
it

show

that religion

is

not a

is

empirically given.

No

theory can refute any

Neither can any philosophy

hope

to achieve

demonstrative proof of the truth or the

error of any religious belief.

Such proof must wait for

complete knowledge of
to grasp
all

all

the evidence and a

mind

able

and compare all possible hypotheses, eliminating most inclusive and most coherent with experience and with logical principles. Even such a mind with such evidence would be somewhat embarrassed by
save the one

the fact that further experience

would be

sure to arise,

complicating the picture.

What we can hope for and all that we can hope for, whether in philosophy of religion or in philosophy of science, not to mention philosophy of art and social philosophy,
is

to discover

grounds for holding or rejecting a
It
is

given belief with a high degree of probability.
tainty that

the

inevitable absence of absolute intellectual or empirical cer-

makes

postulates

and hypotheses fundamental

84

RELIGION AS A FACT
is

in science, as faith
late,

fundamental in

religion.

But postu-

hypothesis, or faith, held without regard to reasons
fall

and evidence, must
of a Paul

equally under the condemnation
all

who

said,

"Prove

things,"

and

a Socrates

who

taught that "the unexamined

life is

not worth living."

Bibliographical

Note

Since the chief sources have been stated rather fully in the course
of the chapter, only a

of the chief symbolic concepts appearing in the history of
Ballou, Spiegelberg,

religion.

and

Friess,

BOW (1939),
religion are

is

an ex-

cellent selection of sources.

Of
Pratt,

special

value for psychology

of

Starbuck,

PR (1900), James, VRE(i902), Leuba, PSR(i9i2), Coe, PR(i9i6),
RC(i92o), Strickland, PRE(i924), and Stolz, PRL(i937). Hocking, HNR(i9i8, 1923), is illuminating. There are numerous other texts; but the field has not been developed satisfactorily
in recent years.

Gethsemane or on the Cross, it is not the tragedy that makes it religious; the value for the sake of which the
tragedy
of Jesus
for his
is

borne

is

its

religious

meaning.

The
it

sufferings

would have been meaningless pain had religious valuation of God and man.
is

not been
Religion

Science
is
it

objective,

disinterested

description.

never merely disinterested description, however objective

may

be.

It

is

"interested,"

that

is,

it

takes sides for

value as against disvalue.

Religion

is

definitely for
is

the

good and against the
in

evil,

whereas science

interested only

knowing

the facts of

good and
is

evil,

their causes

and
But
if,

their effects.

At no
is

stage can a scientist, in his function as

such, ever say of anything, "This

good, this

is

evil."

the scientist
as a

not always functioning as a scientist; and
Religion

human

being, he has religious faith he will be, like
is

all

religious persons, a partisan of good.

a choice

There is no logical or psy1 chological contradiction between the "value-free" attitude of science and the valuing attitude of religion. It is unof value, a
to
it.
1

commitment

A

term derived from the German wertfrei, often used
85

in this connection.

86

RELIGIOUS VALUES
in value, therefore everyone should be interested
at
all

reasonable for a believer to say that because his religious
interest
is

in

value

times.

It

is

equally unreasonable for a
is

scientist to say that

because his scientific interest

in being

disinterested

and

in ignoring value in the laboratory,

no

one should ever value anything. Each extreme is absurd and neither is held by responsible leaders of either religious

Such genuine problems as arise between science and religion do not grow out of the nature of the one as descriptive and the other as
or
scientific

thought.

in the relations

normative.
In two senses, religion
first
is

place, as has

been

said,

an experience of value. In the it is a choice of value, an appre-

ciation or adoration of value, or the source of value.
in the

But

second place,

it

is

also a faith in the friendliness of

the universe to value.

The

first

point

means

that value

experience can be created by

human

enjoyment, choice,
in

or appreciation; the second means that value experience will

somehow be
These two

preserved in the universe, because there

is

the very nature of things an unfailing source of value.
facts of religious

experience justify Holding's

oft-quoted saying that religion rests on the axiom of the

conservation of value.
so far as
it

Religion

may

be challenged only in
is

can be shown that value experience
it

nonthat
it

existent or that

lacks "cosmic support."

Problems have

usually arisen chiefly

from the
flies

latter source.

To deny

value experience exists
is

in the face of experience; but

debatable what the future of value experience in the
be.

cosmos will
tions arising

A

philosophy of religion investigates quesdoubt.
clearer the nature of religion as expericited.

from

this possibility of

In order to

make

ence of value, a few illustrations will be

Let the
,"

reader take up the Bible and turn to the book of Psalms.

There he

will read at the start "Blessed

is

the

man

.

.

.

RELIGIOUS VALUES
in other words, "Valuable
is

87

the experience of the

man"
do

under consideration.
the nations rage?"

A

little later

he will read,

"Why

This sounds like a
shall

scientific question
is,

seeking a scientific answer; but the only answer given

Thus the Psalm means: "No matter how much evil there is, good will triumph laughingly." Thus it can be shown that every verse of every Psalm is a value judgment.
that sitteth in the heavens

"He

laugh."

Or

if

the reader will turn to the Gospels of the

New

Testament he
forth history,

will find further confirmation of the interest

of religion in value.

Here we have writings which set and one of them, the Gospel according to Luke, begins with an objective statement about the author's use of sources. But it will soon be found that the Gospels are quite unlike any scientific history. Every event is reported for the sake of the religious value which it conveys or leads to. "Jesus wept" is not meant as an objective psychological observation, but as a valuation of the sympathy of Jesus. In particular, investigation shows that Jesus very rarely, if ever, is recorded to have mentioned any fact as a bare fact; he gives advice and commands about how to attain value or blessedness, he speaks of sin, repentance, righteousness, love, service all value terms. His interest is not in what actually is so much as in what ought to be and can be.

—

A

similar preoccupation with value pervades the

Hindu

Bhagavad Gita. In Chapter XVII we find the inquiry, "O you of mighty arms ... I wish to know the truth about renunciation and abandonment distinctly."
classic,

the

"The

truth"

is

not scientific truth here;
Likewise,
if

it

is

truth about the

achievement of value.
scriptures
to

we

turn to Buddhist

we

find indifference to

all

discussion that has not

experience, and a typical utterance of Buddha's

do with the attaining of Nirvana, the supreme value is, "Hatred

88

RELIGIOUS VALUES
not appeased by hatred, but by love."
In
all

is

religions of

the world, a religious
to value.

man

is

recognized by his devotion
is

The

essence of this devotion

expressed in the

book
day

of

life

thee to

Deuteronomy: "Behold, I have set before thee this and good, and death and evil; in that I command love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways."

(30:15-16)
§ 2.

Fundamental Definitions

Thus
without

far the

words "value" and "good" have been used
Before
definitions

definitions.

are

proposed,

it

should be

made

clear that all definitions are attempts to

describe or point out fundamental facts of experience or

fundamental theoretical concepts.

They

are

therefore to

be regarded as hypotheses subject to correction.

Facts of

experience may be observed more accurately, or fundamental concepts thought more correctly than hitherto. Definitions
are not

investigation.

dogmas or embalmed truths. They are guides to With this in mind, we proceed. Value means whatever is actually liked, prized, esteemed,
by anyone
at

desired, approved, or enjoyed
is

any time.

2

It

the actual experience of enjoying a desired object or

activity.

Hence, value

is

an existing realization of
or a mass that

desire.
I

A

desired object not yet experienced, like a painting
see,
I

have
the
is

not seen but wish to

have not heard
is

but long to hear,

is

a potential value.

Actual value

presence in experience of the painting or the mass.

Good
is

synonymous with
chiefly to

value, except that the

former

applied

moral values, while the
adjective
is

latter applies also to the

moral, the aesthetic, the logical, and the religious alike.

However, we use the
to valuable: "this
2

form

freely as equivalent
is

symphony

good," "that argument
as

come famous.

Ralph Barton Perry's definition of value See his GTV, Chap. V.

"any object of any

interest" has be-

RELIGIOUS VALUES
good,'' "the prayer

89

was good,"

are almost as
is

common
Worth
disvalue

as
is

the moral judgment, "his character

good."
is

another synonym.

The

opposite of value

or

evil or worthlessness.

Values

may be

intrinsic

(immediate, consummatory, ends)

mediate, causal, means)? meant whatever is desired or enjoyed for its own sake, as an end in itself. We desire to be respectably dressed partly as a means to being socially acceptable, and also because the feeling of being well dressed
or instrumental
(contributory,
is

By

intrinsic value

is

inherently satisfactory regardless of results; as a humorist
it

has said,

gives a peace

which
is

religion can neither give of

nor take away.
dressed
is

Thus

the

consciousness

being well

an

intrinsic value; so

the enjoyment of a meal,

of a conversation with a friend, or of the discovery of a

immediate and consummatory; they is any fact whatever, whether in my experience or out of it, which tends to produce the experience of intrinsic value. If man's love for God is regarded as an intrinsic value, then any experience or event, however distasteful it may be intrinsically, is an instrumental
idea.

new

They

are

are ends.

Instrumental value

value

if

it

contributes to or causes or arouses the love of

God.
It
is

not to be supposed that values are to be divided
of

into

two groups, one

which

is

purely intrinsic and the
all

other instrumental.

As

a matter of experienced fact,

intrinsic values are also instrumental, for the simple reason

that every experienced value
effects;

must be the cause
is

of

some

more

specifically, religious value
is

instrumental to

moral value; moral value
intellectual;

instrumental to aesthetic and
is

intellectual

value

instrumental to

all

the

3 The terms intrinsic and instrumental, like ends and means, are common coin. Maurice Picard has popularized the terms immediate and contributory, while John

Dewey

speaks frequently of the consummatory experience.

9°

RELIGIOUS VALUES
There same value

others.

the
if

art for art's

no contradiction in saying that one and both intrinsic and instrumental; in fact, sake is severed from instrumental relations
is

is

to life as a whole,

its

very intrinsic value tends to deteriorate.
all intrinsic

But from the fact that
it

values are instrumental

does not follow that
illogical

all

instrumental values are intrinsic.
4

This formally

conversion

is

also materially false.

The
it

labor of

mining

coal

would never be indulged
comfort; such labor
all

in

were

not for the resultant

human

is

purely

instrumental for almost any miner and lacks
value.
dirt

intrinsic

So, too, with the

mechanic who

lies

on

his

back

in

and grime under a car

to repair it; his values are purely
series of intrinsic disvalues.

instrumental and
if

may

be a

Yet
of

they lead to the enjoyment of the desired functioning of

the car, they are truly instrumental values.

The work

the dentist and the surgeon, of the ditch digger, and the
laborer at the speeding belt in the automobile factory consists

of instrumental values, in contrast with the
life

abundance

of intrinsic values in the

of the lawyer, the clergyman,

and the

teacher.
a special
class

Ideals constitute

of instrumental values.

An
we

ideal

is
5

a general concept of a type of experience

which

value.

To

have such a concept

is

a very different fact

from having the
refers.

actual experience to

which the concept

Let us suppose that the religious

man

values obe-

dience to the moral teachings of his religion.

Then

the

concept that

an

ideal,

would be valuable to obey those teachings is whether it is acted on or not. There is no intrinsic
it it

value in entertaining an ideal.

purely instrumental in that

The may

value of an ideal

is

serve as cause of or

means to the actual intrinsic value. Only the actual attainment of the value defined by the ideal is an intrinsic value.
4 5

See any text in logic for the explanation of
See Brightman, POI, Chap.
Ill

this fallacy.

on "Ideals."

RELIGIOUS VALUES
An
ideal
is

91

a definition of value; the value

is

the reality

defined.

A

definition

can never be substituted for the

real thing.

Thomas
definition.

a

Kempis had

this in

mind when he

declared that he desired to feel compunction rather than to

know

its

Knowledge

of an ideal

may

be an

intrinsic intellectual value, but this value

identical with the value of

Ideals have at least

is far from being which the ideal is a definition. two different functions, one causal,

the other logical.
their

The

causal function

we have
logical

just called
is

instrumental

character.

Their

function

quite different, however.

Once we have

a value experience

—for example, the enjoyment of a sonata or a comic opera,
or the sense of religious devotion after a worshipful church
service

— we often are in doubt whether we approve our own
moment.
do

feelings of the
tions
?

Were we swept away by emoin such circumstances
is

Do we regard judgment ? What we
of the

the value as expressive of our mature
to consult

our ideals and use them to judge our values.

If

our values

moment contradict our ideal we have made an error in valuing
or potential experiences of value
is

definition, then either

or

we have made an

error in defining.

This function of ideals in judging actual
their logical function,
ideals

and may be
the value.

called into play

whether or not the

were

consciously present as instrumental to the production of

An

ideal regarded
is

logical function

called a
is

from the point of view of this norm. The bare psychological

existence of values
tion

often called valuation.
to

The

applicais

of ideals or

norms

values

(valuations)

called

evaluation.

From

another point of view, valuations

may

be called

empirical values, value-claims, or apparent values.
in experience.

The

first

of these terms expresses the fact that values actually occur

The second

expresses the further fact that
is

accompanying every value there

the explicit or implicit

92

RELIGIOUS VALUES
now
felt is a true value.

claim that the value

A
as

value not

only contains the assertion "I like prayer," but,
tone,

an over-

"You

all

ought

to like

it,"

and anyway,

"I

have a right

When such a claim is it whether you do or not." made, there arises the question: Is it true that all ought to like it ? Is it true that I have a right to like it whether others do or not ? The third term, apparent value, emphasizes the possibility of doubt about our value-claims and the need of 6 investigating them.
to like

This leaves us with the most namely, true value or real value.

difficult of all

our terms,
especially
call

There are some,
it

some

logical positivists,

who

hold that
said

is

absurd to

values true or false, real or apparent.

"There's no disputkissed the

ing about

tastes,

as the

woman

cow."

The

logical positivists, like

when she the woman,
is

point out
verifica-

that the only

way

to

determine truth or error

by

tion in experience.

Statements about physical nature

may
or

be judged true or
refuted

false in so far as they are verified

There is no way of verifying with any similar exactness whether I ought to love my neighbor or worship my God. Hence, they argue, the category of truth doesn't apply to values at all, and no value can be said to be truly better than any other. Apparent values are the last word, if this be true. But there are many others, realists and pragmatists as

by the

results of experiment.

well as idealists,
too

who

think that the logical positivists are

narrow in their view of verification, and that the difference between truth and error can never be determined by
reference to a single experience.
of

Verification

is

a process

and of building up a coherent, rational system of thought and experience. Realists would achieve this by emphasis on logical analysis, pragmatists by emphasis on practical consequences and adjustments, idealrelating

experiences

6

See Brightman,

RV, Chap.

Ill,

"Truth and Value

in Religion."

RELIGIOUS VALUES
ists

93

by emphasis on the wholeness of experience. Each one of these methods sheds light on truth and each is applicable, as logical positivism
is

not, to the process of distinguish-

ing true from apparent or false values.
conflict

When

value-claims
is

with other value-claims, error about value

present.

When

value-claims are consistent and coherent with each
experience, then the

other and with the other facts of

claims are verified; such value-claims are true values.
true value, then,
is

here with any greater absoluteness than in any other
of inquiry.
investigation; but rational
assertions

All assertions of truth are subject to further
of truth
are distin-

guished from mere opinion by the processes of inquiry and
testing
to

which they have been

subjected.

With two

further warnings against

common

misunderstandings,

we
that

may

close the discussion of definitions.
is

The

first

is

true value

not to be confused with intrinsic value.

An
an

intrinsic value-claim

experience for

its

may be own sake,

false; the fact that

I

like

intrinsically,
is

does not entail
If
it

the proposition that the experience

a true value.

did, then every experience of alcoholic intoxication, doubtless an intrinsic value, would be a true value a conclusion open to more than a little doubt. The second warning is

—

against supposing that value categories necessarily apply to
all

experience.

While most experiences

are

more

or less

valuable or disvaluable to us, nevertheless there
neutral experiences to which
liking nor disliking them.

may be we are indifferent, neither The experience of disinterestedis,

ness, or devotion to the ideal of impartiality,

however, not

94

RELIGIOUS VALUES
it

an instance of neutral experience, for
tellectual value of rare beauty.
justice

is

a

moral and
is

in-

Impartiality

loyalty to

and

objectivity rather than neutral indifference to

values.
§ 3.

A

Table of Values

Thus
of value

far

it has been shown that religion is an experience and some fundamental terms of value theory have

been defined.
of the

It

is

now

our task to give a brief account
to be

fundamental types of valuation
It
is

found

in ex-

perience.

almost self-evident that the variety of exis

no one classification of them would be final and hardly any classification, except a very formal one, would be inclusive. Traditionally, the values, or at least what we have called the true values, have been grouped as the good, the true, and the beautiful. Here "good" is used in the special sense of the morally good, and is not synonymous with all value. The three values might be called the ethical, the logical, and the aesthetic. Many have thought that this triad was
periences of value
so great that

But in the nineteenth century and Windelband and other German philosophers advanced the view that religion, while including goodness, truth, and beauty, added a new quality, namely, holiness."' The tendency among writers on the psychology and philosophy of value has been to recognize increasingly the variety of value experiences. Some, indeed, have made no attempt to frame a table of values; yet the attempt can scarcely be abandoned by one who desires a philosophical
a

complete

list

of values.

7

Fries

survey of value experience.

W.
7

table of values well

G. Everett proposed in 1918 (in his Moral Values) a grounded in empirical observation and
little

and religious values. These are roughly arranged in ascending order of intrinsic importance, although no absolute order is possible. But the table is not based on a consistent principle, for the economic values are purely instrumental, while all the others are both intrinsic and instrumental.

Hence

a revised table

is

proposed, with a

minimum

explana-

tion of details.

1.

Purely Instrumental Values.
a.

Natural values. The forces of nature
so forth

—

life,

gravity,

light,

and

—in

so far as they operate causally

and

are accessible to
trinsic

all.

Such forces are instrumental

to in-

value

experience.

The

natural values give rise apart
usually bodily or aesthetic.
b.

intrinsic values to which from control by purpose are

Economic

values.

Physical things, processes (like
so far as their pos-

power),
session
is

human

labor, or services, in

a socially recognized property right, acquired or

surrendered by exchange for equivalents or supposed equivalents.

Economic value
is

is

exchange value.

No

economic

possession

who

an intrinsic value for the normal person; one regards economic values as intrinsic is a miser. But

abundance or deficiency of economic wealth has a profound effect on both the quantity and quality of realizable intrinsic values, as has been emphasized perhaps too strongly by the historical materialism of Karl Marx and his followers. Since economic values presuppose labor, they are more personal than natural values. Money, the symbol of exchange, has been called "coined life." 2. The Lower Intrinsic Values. (This group is called
"lower" because
its

values are narrower,

more

partial

than

96

RELIGIOUS VALUES
and
are

the "higher" ones; they include a smaller area of value experience,

more dependent on other
These are not

values for their

own

worth.)
a.

Bodily values.

to be

confused with

the natural instrumental values, which are purely causal.

Bodily values do not include the actual
as a physiological organism, but only the

state of the

body

enjoyment in consatisfactory bodily

sciousness of the well-being resulting

from

functioning.

The

feeling

of

being in good health, the
group.

joy of living, the pleasures of sex, the delight of successful
athletic

endeavor

all

belong in

this

Bodily values

constitute only one limited realm of intrinsic value experi-

ence, but they are instrumental to an incalculable

amount
In

of weal and

woe among

the higher intrinsic values.

practices such as fasting

and penance religion has some-

times overemphasized this instrumental function of bodily
values at the cost of intrinsic enjoyment.
b.

Recreational values.

The

satisfactions that

come

from

play,

humor, or mere amusement.

These are the chief

values of childhood, but are essential to the healthy
at every age.

mind
some
takes

Since their instrumental value

is

great,

regard them as exclusively instrumental; but one
his

who

game

or his

swim

or his joke merely as a

means

to busi-

ness efficiency or to moral character will never really enjoy
his recreation.
is lost

The

very instrumental value of recreation
it

on one who does not enjoy
not the serious business of
of experience.
Just
fact of
as

as intrinsic.

Yet recrearelatively

tion

is

life

and covers a
is

narrow range
c.

should be.

Wor\ values. The mere

play

joyful,

so
is

work
a

being employed

itself

satisfaction.

The production
would be

of instrumental values
in a reasonably just
is

is itself

an by

intrinsic value, or

economic
in the

order.

Yet satisfaction in usefulness
its

a very slender value

itself;

justification lies chiefly

beyond

itself

RELIGIOUS VALUES
intrinsic

97

worth of what

is

being produced.

The work

values enjoyed in a munitions plant are hardly comparable
to those
3.

enjoyed by a cast of actors rehearsing Hamlet.
Intrinsic Values.
its

The Higher

(This group

is

called

"higher" because

values are broader,

more

inclusive of
co-

experience as a whole,
herent.
It is

more independent, and more

impossible to group these higher values in a

scale of increasing excellence, except that social values are

intrinsically
a.

lower than the others.)
all

values

Social values. This term does not refer to which may be experienced in society, but rather
is

to

the special value that

experienced through the consciousIt is

ness of association, cooperation, or sharing.

clear that

many

of

life's

most highly prized

values

can

be

ex-

perienced only thus; and social values should be called

"higher"
sonality.

if

only because they
is

Every true value

embody the worth of perenhanced when experienced

as a social value.
as the

Nevertheless, social values are classified

lowest of the higher values, because mere association
is

with others
tions

almost utterly devoid of worth unless some
is

other value besides the social

being sought.

Social rela-

depend for
itself

their value very largely

truth, goodness, beauty, or religion.

on the presence of Without these, social
it

value

vanishes.

Yet with them,

adds a luster that

they could never have as experiences of an isolated individual.
9

b. Character values. This somewhat unsatisfactory term designates the experience of a good will, the conscious

choice of
is

what

is

believed right and best.
life is

The word moral

avoided because the moral

not merely the good will,

but actual organization of the whole experience of value

by the
9

will.
reader

Thus morality
cares to note a

is

the experience of the whole
in the author's

The

who

change

view

is

referred to Bright-

man, ITP, 146.

98

RELIGIOUS VALUES
They
are the experiences

table of values, while character values refer exclusively to

the act of choosing.

which Kant
section of

regarded as the only intrinsic value; in the

first

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, he begins by saying: "Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without
qualification, except a

Good

Will."

But

critics

generally
will,

hold
truth

that,

high

as

is

our

justified
is

esteem for a loyal

the causes to

which

that will

loyal

—the

other values of

and beauty, for instance are also as "good without qualification" as is a good will. A loyal, consistent will that willed nothing worth willing would be good with some qualification, most of us believe; and a large part of the problem of religion arises from the need of worthy ends for human choosing. A good character is indeed a jewel that shines by its own light and is respected by every rational mind; but it is not the only higher value. Yet it is so necessary that without the control by good will all the other values soon become disorganized, incoherent, and
self-destructive.
c.

—

Aesthetic values.

The

values of aesthetic

satis-

faction include not only the beautiful, but the sublime, the

the comic, and many other gradations. The aeswhether in nature or in art, is an experience in which there is, or at least appears to be, an adequate expression of purpose in such a way as to stir feeling and achieve harmony. Art may be defined as the conformity of expression Character value is independent of success in to purpose. achieving what is chosen; aesthetic value depends entirely on such success. What does not embody the intended meaning is not aesthetically adequate. That aesthetic values
tragic,
thetic,

are intrinsically satisfactory

is

the universal testimony of

mankind.

Like character values, aesthetic values are ex-

RELIGIOUS VALUES
periences in

99

which the whole

of

life

is

mirrored or

or-

ganized from a special point of view.
d.

Intellectual values.

The

intellectual values are the

experiences of truth-loving and truth-finding.

Some

writers
is

object to calling truth a value; they believe that value
irrelevant to truth

indifferent as to

and that much truth is so painful or be devoid of value. Granting both of these

contentions,

it

remains an empirical fact that

much

truth

is valued and that all truth is valued by the noblest spirits, no matter how uncomfortable the truth may be. Others

object to regarding truth as an intrinsic value;
say,

it

is,

they

purely instrumental to the control and remaking of

experience; and a whole school of philosophers are called
instrumentalists partly for this reason.

No

one, in fact,

could deny that the truths of science and philosophy are
instrumental to the control of inner and outer experiences;
it is

a familiar observation that intrinsic values are also in-

strumental.

curiosity, the
totle is

mon

to

joy of knowing, the mere satisfaction of "wonder" which according to Plato and Aristhe beginning of philosophy, are experiences comevery human being. These constitute the intrinsic

The

aspects of the intellectual values.

which are experienced when man takes an attitude toward value experience as a whole and toward its dependence on powers beyond man. Insight into this dependence elicits feelings of reverence and acts of worship. The special quality of the whole which is deemed worthy of worship is called holie.

Religious values.

The

values

ness.

Like

all

of the other higher values, religious values are
total value experience

an organization of the

from a special standpoint. Social values organize the whole from the standpoint of sharing; character values, from the standpoint of control by will; aesthetic values, from the standpoint of

ioo

RELIGIOUS VALUES
religious values

appreciative feeling; intellectual values,

of knowledge; and worship of and cooperation with the objective cosmic source

from the standpoint from the standpoint of

of values.
§ 4.

The Uniqueness and the Coalescence
Intrinsic

of the

Values

The

explanations just given in connection with the Table

of Values suffice to establish the dual character of each of the intrinsic values:

each has a unique quality of

its

own

to contribute to the total value experience

each tends to coalesce with the others.

and yet Without the unique

contribution of each of the values, our value experience

and would even have no content at monotonous one. Without variety, sweetness palls and value loses value. On the other hand, no single value can be defined or be experienced without some
variety
all,

would have no

or at best a

reference to

all

the other values.

The one

intrinsic value

of

which this statement appears to be false is bodily value; the glow of good health or the joy of exercise seems to be what it is altogether apart from a person's aesthetic taste, mastery of logic, or religious reverence. Yet, in some incultured

definable way, even the bodily satisfactions of the broadly

man seem
are

to

have a slightly different quality from
All of the other values,

those of the ignorant and brutish.

however,
trate"

plainly

interdependent.

They

"interpene-

(as

W.

G. Everett said) and tend

to coalesce.

In

mimicked; and without ingame), character values (playing fair), and aesthetic values (skill) no recreation is fully successful. Even more plainly do social values coalesce with the others; unless we have play, or work, or knowledge, or beauty, or religion, there is nothing to share. Again, if knowledge is to have complete content, it must include in
play, all the values of real life are
tellectual values (rules of the

RELIGIOUS VALUES
its

101

subject matter not only
values.

all

knowable

facts,

but also

all

knowable

The application of this same principle and religious values is obvious. If one could subtract from religious values all that could be called recreato aesthetic
tional, or social, or character, or intellectual, or

aesthetic,

what would be
In
other
fact,
is

left?

the fusion and coalescence of values with each

such that one might be inclined to deny that there

In that case, are any separate and distinct values at all. no uniqueness pertains to any one value; and it must be granted that no rational being would be satisfied with any value in the entire table, were it stripped of the content coming to it from the other values. How empty would the value of knowledge be if there were nothing to know except the mere form of knowing How blasphemous and worthless religion would be if it could not include either goodness
!

or truth or beauty in either the worshiper or his
line of

God

!

This
is

thought points toward the conclusion that there

really only

one value, namely, the systematic whole of our

value experience.

No

value has sovereignty in
is

its

national

territory; only the league of values

sovereign.

it will not do to and assert that system is the only value. We must ask, System of what? And we have to answer, System of various unique value experiences. But in the

Yet, as has been previously intimated,

leave the matter here

coalescence of the system, the values listed in the table are

more

like whirlpools or eddies

than like

fish

swimming

in

the sea.

They

are centers

of organization

or points of
distinct

view for approaching value, rather than separate and
entities,

each more or

less

valuable than the other.
10

Hence,
sys-

in estimating the

importance of a value, "we must give up

the idea of a scale for that of a system."

Within the

tem, degrees of value would be measured by the extent to
10 Sorley,

MVIG,

51.

io2

RELIGIOUS VALUES

which the particular value in question the symphony, the poem, the principle, the virtue mirrors or expresses the nature of the whole system of value. The normative and philosophical account of the coales-

—

—

cence of values just given should not blind our eyes to the
empirical fact that historically and psychologically the coalescence
is

culture were
of religion,

from perfect. While early stages of homogeneous, without any clear differentiation art, science, and morality, nevertheless there arose
often far

long ago a separation
or class to

among

these values; the special caste

which the
it

cultivation of a value

came
sake;

to regard

as

the be-all

was assigned and end-all of existence.
art's
its

Priests lived for
scientists

God

alone; artists cultivated art for
its

loved truth regardless of

value or

application;

and moralists made duty the one and only supreme law of life. So too, the tendency of the mind to generate psychologically "water-tight compartments" (as James said), the lack of innate ability in certain fields of value experience, and defective education, may result in the omission of whole areas of potential value from an individual or a group, in complexes which lead to fanatical devotion or fanatical hatred toward some value or set of values, or in a life in which the relations of values are never clearly
seen.

Thus

the coalescence of values

is

a

normative ideal

rather than a universal experience.
§ 5.

The Uniqueness

of Religious Values
it is

In view of the coalescence of values,

easy to see

how

arduous

is

the task of showing precisely of

contribution of religious value consists.
application of the
values, then
it

what the unique If religion is an

axiom of the conservation of (other) consists only of what is entailed by the statewill be conserved, beauty will be conserved,

ments,

"Good

truth will be conserved."

Hence some have held

that reli-

RELIGIOUS VALUES
gion
is

103

simply an interest in the permanence of value ex-

perience in general.

Others have identified

it

with some
it

one other value; Spinoza, for instance, regarded
lectual value

as intelit
;

(knowledge of God)
("duties
as
it

character values

Kant identified divine commands")
;

with

Oscar

Wilde saw

in

only aesthetic value.

Modern humanists
social values; for
is

sometimes identify religious values with

them every
religious.

social experience

and only

social experience
if

All of these efforts are one-sided
is

the account

given of coalescence

correct.

On

the other hand, in an effort to assert the
values,

autonomy

of
to

religious

erroneous attempts have been
It
is

made

define their uniqueness.
that a value experience

has often been said, for instance,
if it

religious

has

God

as its object.

But

this definition

is

confronted by the existence of atheistic
religious

religions like

Hinayana Buddhism, modern
even
if

humanirreli-

ism, and

Communism; and
it

these be called
is still

gious by grace of definition, the definition
tory, for
fails to

unsatisfac-

distinguish an intellectual or an aesthetic
a religious one.

interest in

God from
X1

Hence Rudolf Otto
is

has proposed

the idea that religious value

a single

unique

quality, called the

numinous,

totally different

from any profelt

fane or secular experience in a peculiar kind of mysterious

and fascinating awe.

Certain mystics have

religious

value to consist in release

from

all

the restrictions of other

values, rational or moral; the gospel

song

says,

"Freed from

the law,

Oh, happy condition."
is

But most minds find a

religion that
If

utterly

antinomian also utterly meaningless.
possible

many

attempts to identify the unique contribution of
it

religion to the realm of value have failed,
to point out

is

still

tinguish

it

numerous marks of religious value that disfrom other types. These may be summarized
unique sense of dependence (unique, because
The Idea
of the Holy.

as follows: a
11

See his work,

io 4

RELIGIOUS VALUES
on the ground of the universe is from our dependence on particular local
;

the sense of dependence
radically different

conditions in our environment)

a mystical experience of

worship and prayer; awareness of illumination or revelation; a consciousness of divine aid (cosmic support, salvation,

acknowledgment that God does for man what man cannot do for himself (divine initiative, grace) conatonement)
; ;

sciousness of cooperation with or submission to cosmic pur-

pose

God). Belief in the uniqueness of religious value is one of the most potent factors in man's religious consciousness: "To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One."
(the
will

of

(Is.

40:25)

§ 6.

The Coalescence

of Religious Values with

Other

Values
In what has already been said, the

meaning
as

of the coales-

cence of
clear.

all intrinsic

values with each other has been

made
values

But the religious consciousness

such has almost
its

always been more interested in the uniqueness of

than in their coalescence.

Believers think that the sacred

importance of religion
curious fact
size
its

is

imperiled

if it

be regarded as in-

tegrally related to all the other values of culture.
is

Yet the

that whatever

means

religion uses to

emphapain-

lack of relation to other values really emphasizes

that relation.

Monasteries are built; and the
in painting, music,

monks

fully write out the pre-Christian classics.

Faith finds ex-

pression in

art,

and architecture; and

the forms and media of art are determined at least in part

by secular tradition and economic conditions.

The unique

power of almost every religion is acle, which often takes the form

attested

by magic or mir-

of the healing of disease;

thus religious values coalesce with natural and bodily values.

When

this

uniqueness

is

defined, whether

among

Jews,

RELIGIOUS VALUES
Hindus, Mohammedans, or Christians,
philosophy.
Religion, except in
its
it is

105

by means of a

theology inevitably influenced by nonreligious science and

magical and fanatical

aberrations, coalesces with character values to such an extent

that the chief teachings of

many
its

religions are

moral maxims.
in-

Religion cannot maintain

uniqueness apart from the
it.

terpenetration of the other values with

Here we seem
:

to confront

gious values that our experience of religion

an ultimate truth about relimakes a genuine

contribution to the total experience of value, which, however,

can be adequately appreciated and understood only in a
living interrelation of all the values to each other, coalescing
in a living whole.
§
7.

The
that

Relations of Ideals to Existence
religious
is

The
man.

fact

values

exist

and have existed
facts

throughout history

one of the most certain

The problem

of philosophy of religion arises

known to when we

we

attempt to think through the relations of the ideals imvalue experience to what
facts of existence.

plicit in

we know,

or think

know, about the

Man

experiences ideal aspirations toward goodness, truth,

beauty, and holiness.
intellectual,

aesthetic,

These ideals are implicit in moral, and religious experience. Yet very

few persons
their

are able to fulfill the

demands
life

of these ideals in

own daily living.

Physical health, economic conditions, conspire to

the shortness and the complexity of

make

the

task of the fulfillment of the ideal a difficult one for the

noblest spirits

whose wills are entirely bent on ideal goals; how much more difficult is it for the less gifted, not to mention the less loyal!

Subjectively considered, then, ideals are

precarious.

The problem
tively.

is

much more

serious

when viewed

objec-

Religious ideals are not merely definitions of possible

io6

RELIGIOUS VALUES
of value experience, and about toward the source of cosmic value, thought But the facts of experience, as interpreted by
~
l

value experience; as religious, they are also assertions about
the future continuation
ideal attitudes

of as a

God.

the sciences, seem to reveal impersonal laws and forces rather

than a
son,

God

concerned about ideal values.

The same

facts

of experience, as they

come day by day

to the ordinary per-

do not seem

to be intended to

encourage and help unideal

divided loyalty to ideal values.
of religion

In fact, the very experience

grows out of the contrast between
facts.

demands
it.

and natural

Religious individuals are often acutely

conscious of this contrast, and call on

God

to alter

An

England history of 1856, when a Boston clergyman, who was depressed by the heretical and radical ideas of Theodore Parker, is recorded to have prayed thus: "O Lord, what shall be done for Boston if thou dost not take this and some other matters in hand?" Now, the problem of philosophy of religion
is

amusing instance

found

in the

New

is

essentially this: If the universe
it

is

such as religious ideals
the actual relation be-

define

to be,

why

does

it

appear to be so indifferent, even

so hostile, to those ideals?

What

is

tween
lusions

religious ideals
?

and

actual existence?

Are they

il-

Are they

descriptions of existence?
religious ideals,

programs of action but incorrect Or is existence actually what truly understood, imply that it is?
correct

Bibliographical

Note

The problem of value (now called axiology) has been investigated by philosophers ever since Plato and his theory of Forms or
12

As we have previously noted, Hoffding speaks

of the conservation of values as

But values are not fixed entities or things; they are conscious Therefore it is more empirical to speak of "continuation" fulfillments of ideals. of value experience, with Peter A. Bertocci (EAG, 165), rather than of conthe religious axiom.
servation. 13 Commager,

TP, 270-271.

RELIGIOUS VALUES
Ideas.
Plato's

107

Euthyphro was one of the

first

investigations of

the nature of religious values.
existed

Urban, VAL(i909), summarizes general theory of value as it when he wrote. A more recent account is Laird, IV(iQ2C)). Perry, GTV(iq26), is the most important contribution by an American. Picard, VIC (1920), is useful; Reid, TO V( 1939), expounds rather dogmatically a naturalistic theory
Excellent in relation to ethics
is

of value.

Everett,

MV(i9i8).

Special treatments of religious values are found in Hoffding,

PR(tr. 1906), Hocking,
1926).

MGHE(i9i2), and

R. Otto,

^(1917,

tr.

Brightman, RV(i925), emphasizes the values of worship.

FOUR
RELIGION AS A PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
i.

Were Unique and Autonomous, Independent of Philosophy Religion Might Be
If

Religious Values

HE

topic of the present chapter

is:

Religion as
is

a philosophical

problem.

Fortunately, there

always a contradiction to any assertion.
ligion a philosophical

Reisn't!

problem?

Maybe

it

Not only do ordinary
any thought of
faith

religious believers

worship without

a philosophical

problem, but some religious

leaders, such as Albrecht Ritschl,
is

have asserted that religious

quite independent of metaphysics.

Can

it

be that
in-

our judgments about the truth of religion are actually

dependent of our judgments about the nature of experience

and

reality as a

religious beliefs are

other beliefs
subjected
?

whole? Why should anyone suppose that exempt from the scrutiny to which our about mind, matter, society, and history are

Perhaps the chief actual cause for the supposed independence of religious beliefs
is

a deep-rooted conviction that life's

supreme values are at stake in religion, that they ought not to be imperiled by rational investigation. Doubtless every reader of this book has met persons holding this conviction. But however widespread its effects may be, it is a cause and not a reason. There is no rational ground for supposing
that a truth
is

more

clearly grasped
108

if it is

not clearly defined

A PHILOSOPHICAL
and
related to other truths; there
it

PROBLEM
is

109

not even ground for

supposing that
protecting
it

is

good strategy
investigation.
is

from

by Such protection, instead
to safeguard a truth

of strengthening the belief that

protected, tends to arouse

the suspicion that something
it is

is

rotten in

Denmark.

Indeed,

quite possible that unwillingness to subject a belief to

philosophic investigation

suppressed doubts.
religious beliefs,
false.
if

In

it

may be an may lurk

overcompensation for
the hidden fear that

scrutinized closely, will turn out to be

Wisdom would

take the contrary course.
it

If

life's

supreme values
criticized.
If

are really at stake in religion,

is

then of

the utmost importance that they be rigorously defined and
they are true, their truth will then stand out
if

more
as

clearly;
if

our conception of them can be improved,
false,
it

it

should be;

they are

is

essential not to treat error

supreme value.

There
fords a
is

is,

however, a different

line of

thought which

af-

more

plausible basis for the proposition that religion

independent of philosophy.

Items of immediate experi-

ence are so certain that no philosophy can possibly deny

them, and every philosophy must build on them. No error is possible about the fact that I now experience what I now
experience.

Now,
is

if

religious values are

immediate experiindependent of

ences which are experienced without any "creed" or "theology,"
there

no doubt

that

they

are

philosophy,

at least in

the sense that they are real, whatever

philosophy one

may

hold.

The awe

in the presence of the starry

by Immanuel Kant heavens and the moral law may
felt

be regarded

as a religious

metaphysics, although a blind

mood which is independent of man could not experience

the one or a disbeliever in moral law the other.

But if one can see and does believe in moral law, the awe that he feels is a unique and undeniable fact, to be shaken by no philosophizing. It would be as unshakable by any later reasoning

no

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
am hungry, I am tired,
I

as are the experiences: "I

see colors."

Those who

assert the

uniqueness of religious values to the

exclusion of their coalescence with other values, and
believe that religion
is

who

wholly incommensurable with any
(such

other dimension of

life

men
is

as

Soren Kierkegaard) are

able to declare that religion

independent of philosophy.

They
to

rely

on some divine revelation or mystical moment
it

impart an absolute quality to the whole of experience.
at a

But they do pay
is

very high price.

The

price they have to

either extreme subjectivism or objective irrationalism.
calls

Subjectivism
rience, as
beliefs;

on them

to assert the religious expe-

we

saw, unaccompanied by any interpretation or

no creed or theology is possible if religion is only the immediate feeling of awe or adoration. Subjectivism, howa price so high that only the hopeless sophisticate will and he only in a passing mood. One who feels awe, if he also feels normal curiosity, will ask why he feels it. And he is embarked on the quest in which, if he be like
is
it

ever,

pay

Saint Augustine, his soul will be restless until

it

finds rest in
If

God.
loves,

If

he adores,
is

whom

or

what does he adore?
is

he

what

the person or the cause he

loving?

Subjec-

tivism

requires feelings without ideas, emotions without
belief.

thought or

Some

interpretation of feeling

is

neces-

mind, and so a purely subjective religion without theology is in the long run impossible. It is a state of unstable mental equilibrium. If few will pay the price of subjectivism, more will seek to protect the autonomy of religious values by objective irrationalism. According to this view, the ultimate religious object is so far above man as to be utterly unknowable. Herbert Spencer thought of religion as man's relation to The Unknowable. Buddhists and Brahmans made Nirvana their religious goal. Nirvana, although positive in nature, nevertheless was the negation of all desire, all knowledge,
sary to the integrity of the feeling

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM

in

and all individual experience. Now, if The Unknowable or Nirvana be the essence of religion, then philosophy, which is
rational thought about experience, can neither give nor take

away any
to all

religious value or truth.

Religion

is

then

immune
is

time,

it

known or may be

conceivable truth and value.

At the same
worth
is

questioned whether such religion
receives
if
its

the protection

it

sole revelation

The Un-

knowable.

As
given

experiences,

we may

conclude, religious values are

not dependent on any theory or philosophy.
facts.

They

are

But

religious values are not

merely subjective
about right and

experiences; they involve beliefs

—beliefs

wrong, about beauty, about man's destiny and divine power and will. If these beliefs are not blank assertions that reality is unknowable, or that all categories of knowledge are transcended in the Nirvana of religious passivity, then they are
propositions

which

entail

something about the

real world.

In so far as religious values assert or imply anything about
the source of value or the future of value, and in so far as

they coalesce to any degree with moral, intellectual, aesthetic,
social, recreational, or

bodily values, the

demand

for philo-

sophical investigation of religion becomes urgent.
§ 2.

Even Then

It

Would Be

a Problem for History,

Psychology, and Sociology
Suppose, however, the most extreme claims of Herbert

Spencer and the Hindus are conceded, and religion
as a

is

viewed

unique relation
its

to the inconceivable, or
is

suppose on any
philosoph-

ground whatever religion
within

granted to be so autonomous
all

own

sphere as to be independent of

ical investigation, it

would

still

remain true that the unique

and autonomous experiences of religious value had arisen in a historical, sociological, and psychological context. Hence, even if religion is independent of philosophical in-

ii2

A
it

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
cannot be independent of history, sociology, or

vestigation

psychology.

These sciences must investigate
its

its

rise

and

development,
ture task remains

institutional forms,

its

psychological struc-

and function.

After they have done their work, another
results of these various inis

—that of relating the
and
its

vestigations to each other;

this

the task of philosophy.

Thus philosophy, by
"the guile of reason,"

perverse dialectic that Hegel calls

when thrown
It

out of the door comes
that religious

back in through the window.
experience cannot be at
philosophy.
§ 3.
all

would seem

without falling under the eye of

Reasons for Treating

It as a

Philosophical Problem

Arguments adduced in favor of the doctrine of the secesfrom the republic of reason have already been examined and found insufficient. We are now ready to summarize the main grounds for treating religious value as a philosophical problem. Although it is often supposed
sion of religion
that religion

by

its

very nature precludes philosophical inis

vestigation, the fact

that almost

all

great religious thinkers

of

all

branches of Christendom, Judaism, Islam, Brahman-

ism, and other religions have been far

more than dogmatic
also

expounders of an uncriticized faith; they have
philosophers

been
as

who

related their tenets to experience
to radical criticism.
It is

a

whole and subjected them

a source

of distress to the irreligious that

many

of the philosophers

treated in any history of philosophy are also theologians; but,

pleasant or unpleasant,
clearly the

it

is

a fact,

and a

fact that

shows

need of religion for intellectual interpretation. matter how many may wish to believe or disbelieve in No religion without thinking about it, the point of our present remarks is that it is not normal or usual for an intelligent

mind

to accept religion

without thought.

Why

should this

A
be true
?

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
not simply "enjoy" religion without

113

Why

critical

analysis

?

(1)

Coalescence of values.

As was shown
all

in the previous

with other and become meaningless and worthless without such coalescence. But if religious, moral, and intellectual values do coalesce, the question arises as to how this happens. What intellectual values support and sustain reOr are the ideas with which religion is fused not ligion? Again, what values but disvalues, not truths but errors?
chapter, religious values, like
others, coalesce

types of value

moral values interpenetrate with the religious?
presence of what competing values,
if

In

the

any, does religion

wane

or perish?

In order to cope with such questions,
is

philosophical

method

necessary.
It

(2) Relations of ideals to existence.

has already been

pointed out that religion

is

not concerned primarily about

abstract ideals, but rather about the production, preservation,

and increase of
it

actually existing values.

It

is

not enough

for the believer to

know

that there

would be

excellent to attain;

an ideal of peace which but he hears a divine voice
is

say,

"Peace be unto you"

— in

short, let the ideal exist in

actual, empirical form.

Principia Ethica,

As G. E. Moore remarks in his "Though God may be admitted to be a
any actual

more
of
exist."

perfect object than
yet
1

God may

be inferior to
is

human being, human love, if God
it is

the love

does not

Religion

not abstract idealism,

concrete and

practical.

It asserts

that ideals are not only abstractly valid

in the Platonic

kingdom

of Ideas, but also that they are to
in the

some extent
existence.

realizable

and realized

world of actual

The
is

belief that ideals are valid but are not potent

in actuality a view,
1

the position of an idealistic pessimist.
it

Such

however bravely moral

may

be,

is

not religious,

Moore, PE, 200.

ii4

A PHILOSOPHICAL
it

PROBLEM
is

because
values.
ical,

denies the basic axiom of the conservation of
of the eternal validity of ideals
log-

The axiom

but not religious; religion requires the conservation of
Religion, therefore, can be understood only

values.

when

the philosophical problem of the relation of ideals to exist-

ence

is

thought through.

(3) Religion, science, and philosophy refer to the same world. This statement may seem to contradict the views of

those

who

hold that science and philosophy refer to the

realm of nature and religion to the realm of grace, or that
the former relate to this world and the latter to a super-

world.

Let

it

be granted that some religion
It

is

predom-

inantly otherworldly.

remains true that such religion

judgment on this world. Either this world is a divine creation which has fallen from grace and is under a curse; or this world is an obstacle and temptation to be overcome; or it is the scene of a conflict between the God of light and the God of darkness; or it is a gymnasium or a prison house. In any case, religion means something about the present and visible world; and in this respect its judgments are directed toward the same world that science and philosophy investigate. The relations of these various judgments to each other must be considered, if religion is to be found
implies a
true or false.

Furthermore,
it is

if

in addition to this world,

there

is

a superworld,

necessary to consider the evidence

in this

world for

belief in the other,

and

also to

make

coherent statements about the relations between the two.
(4)
beliefs.

There are contradictory religious value-claims and This indubitable fact of religious history makes it
all

impossible to believe
of one religion
is

religion to be true.

A

value-claim

that the merciful are blessed.
is

A

value-

claim of another religion
killed as a sacrifice.
It
is

that the first-born should be

possible that either

one of these
at the

value-claims

may

be valid, but not that both are

same

A PHILOSOPHICAL
time, unless the
to avoid

PROBLEM

115

aim

of religion

on the second assumption
believe that there are

is

being blessed.

Some
is

many

gods; others, that there

only one.

Some hold

that the

gods have bodily form, others
spirit

assert that
still

God

is

a conscious

without bodily form, and
is

others think that the di-

vine
ness.

a force, principle, or

law with no personal conscious-

Some hold that salvation is by Christ alone; some, by Buddha alone. There is no doubt that systems of belief as
different as Judaism, Christian Science, Confucianism,

Roman
all

Catholicism have
it is

all

and produced religious values and
all

noble characters; but
of

impossible that

the beliefs of
af-

them can be
it;

true at the

same time.

Catholicism

firms the reality of material substance; Christian Science
denies

Judaism and Confucianism do not regard any view
as essential to religion.

on the subject

The

facts reveal the

presence of conflicting beliefs about religion.

From

this conflict the philosophers of ancient

Rome

in-

ferred, according to

worship were

all

Gibbon, that "the various modes of equally false." But a conflict of opinion
:

about the world or the nearest route to the Indies did not,

Columbus, prove the nonexistence of that the world had no shape. Conflicting opinions about the future do not imply that there will be no future, any more than different theories of money show that there is no money. Neither does conflict of opinion
in the days before

America or

prove that

all

religious opinions are equally valuable,
says,

as

amiable tolerance often
logic.

when

it

forgets the claims of
is
is

All that conflict of opinion proves

that there

is

need for rational inquiry, unless religion
either into the cat-and-dog fight of a

to degenerate
all

war

of

against

all,

or else into a purely subjective emotion that allows

itself

no
2

rational or social expression.

Decline and Fall of the

Roman

Empire, Chap.

II.

n6

A PHILOSOPHICAL

PROBLEM

§ 4.

What

Is

the Philosophical Problem of Religion?

In view of the claims and counterclaims, the conflicting

and contradicting beliefs entertained by religious men and women, the philosophical problem of religion may
values

be stated very
true values.

briefly.

It

is

obviously impossible that

all

religious beliefs can be true or all religious value-claims be

The

question:

Is

religion true?
rational

would

there-

problem of philosophy of religion would take the form: Are any religious beliefs true? If so, which ones, and why? Are any religious value-claims truly objective? If so, which ones, and why? The best possible answer to these questions is the best possible philosophy of religion. If no religious beliefs
fore be undiscriminating.

The

or value-claims are true, then religion

is

shown

to

be of no

metaphysical importance, and of primary importance only
to

phenomenologists or
§ 5.

psychiatrists.

What
is

Is

the Method of Philosophical
Interpretation
?

If

religion

to be investigated philosophically,

what we
clear.
is

mean by

philosophical investigation must be

made

There are some whose notion of philosophical method
rather crude.
ical
It

consists in arriving at a system of philosoph-

conclusions without regard to the empirical facts of

religion,

and then accepting or
Such a method
is is

rejecting religious beliefs

according to their consistency or inconsistency with that
system.
it is

not an interpretation of religion;
to be

sheer dogmatism.

It is

condemned

regardless of

whether the system

piously theistic or impiously atheistic.

The

philosophical interpreter should apply methods of inIn-

ternal criticism rather than these crudely external ones.

ternal criticism starts with the empirical subject matter to be
criticized,

discovers

its

meaning and

structure,

and then

A
relates
it

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
and thought.

117

to other areas of experience

In the

process of interpretation by internal criticism, there are five
fairly distinct stages: (1)

preliminary synopsis, (2)

scientific

analyses

and syntheses, (3) synoptic hypotheses, (4) verifica(See Chapters XV-XVI.) tion, and (5) reinterpretation. Preliminary synopsis. Interpretation must begin with (1) something to interpret; yet the first grasp of the material must necessarily be most inadequate. It is a mere orientation (see Chapter I), a sweeping glance with the aim of getting what we call "the hang" or "the feel" of the whole. It is observation on what J. Loewenberg calls the preanalytic
stage,

and

consists of a tentative intuition of the general field

of facts to be studied.
(2) Scientific analyses and syntheses. The more or less shadowy and foggy whole of the preliminary synopsis acquires firm outlines and definite content only by processes of scientific analysis and synthesis. First of all, the various portions of the field are isolated and broken up into their

constituent parts.

Ideally, this analysis proceeds until simple

elements have been found that can be analyzed no further.

Then

these elements are seen synthetically in their relations

to each other.

In Chapter II the results of such analyses and syntheses of religion were summarized. Philosophical interpretation is purely formal and empty of real content unless it rests on the firm ground of the scientific analysis and synthesis of experience. (3) Synoptic hypotheses. The third stage is the most distinctly philosophical one in the process of interpretation. It is that of what Kant called the Gedankenexperiment (experiment of thought) or what we may call the synoptic
hypothesis.

All thought, scientific or philosophical, pro-

ceeds by the invention of hypotheses intended to explain the

observed data.

Without hypotheses, not even

analysis can

advance; the methods and the goal of analysis would both

n8

A PHILOSOPHICAL

PROBLEM
is

be blind unless thus guided.
unless
it

Experiment

meaningless

either

is

made

for the purpose of testing

some

hypothesis or else results in a

new

hypothesis.

Facts with-

out hypotheses are mere piles of bricks; facts ordered by

hypotheses are buildings
Scientific hypotheses,

fit

to dwell in.
differ

however,
is

from philosophical

ones.

A

scientific hypothesis

restricted to the ordering of

the limited subject matter under investigation

—

let

us say

the radiation of light or the religion of the Algonkins.

A

philosophical hypothesis, on the other hand, has a far wider

scope and

is

synoptic in a very special sense, for

it

aims to
a see-

relate the subject

matter under investigation to a view of

experience as a whole.

The word

synopsis,

meaning

ing together, has been used since Plato to denote a comprehensive view of experience, which relates the parts revealed

by analysis and the relations established by synthesis to the whole structure of which they are aspects. Synopsis lays stress on the properties of wholes which their parts do not 3 have. This principle is of importance in the field of religion, for any value or ideal may be made to appear petty and worthless if it be analyzed into its simplest elements and attention fixed on those elements. To say that the ideal of worship is nothing but a complex of feelings, sensations,

and thoughts, quite disregards the nature of the worship experience as a whole and its function in the ordering and elevation of life. A living whole is always more than the sum of its parts, just as a human body is more than a sum of electrons and protons. Without synoptic hypotheses, the value and function of religion would forever escape us. An additional word is needed about the nature of a
philosophical hypothesis.
3

In being philosophical, an hypoth-

Such properties have been discovered and interpreted most frequently by idealbut many realists, such as G. E. Moore (in his Frincipia Ethica), E. G. Spaulding, and R. W. Sellars, recognize the reality and importance of these properties.
ists;

A PHILOSOPHICAL
esis relates

PROBLEM
It

119

the particular to the universal, the present to

the eternal, the part to the whole.

seems most presump-

tuous for man, with his fragmentary knowledge, to

make

any statements, however hypothetical, about the whole which must forever exceed his grasp. Yet it is no more presumptuous to think of the whole than to think of the part, for the part necessarily implies a whole to which it belongs.
In fact, the nature of reason
is

such that

it

is

impossible to

avoid using universals which apply to the whole;

think time without thinking eternity;
space without thinking
all

space;

we cannot we cannot think this and we cannot think of

man's dependence without thinking of something on which he depends. It is futile to try to choke off philosophical thinking by calling it presumptuous. It is more presumptuous to take any attitude without thought than
it

is

after

thoughtful consideration.

Just as the individual needs in-

tegration for his psychological health, so also he needs synoptic hypotheses for his mental health.

Yet such hypotheses

are not to be tested

their value for health

by their value for health; on the contrary, is tested by their truth. Religion alas its very life; faith
is

religious attitude

ways includes synoptic hypotheses toward them.
(4)
Verification.
is

the

The

fourth stage of philosophical in-

terpretation
faith in the

verification.

Given a synoptic hypothesis,
else there
is

goodness of God, for example, some means of

testing

it

must be devised, or
it

no way of knowing
constitutes veri-

whether There
fication.

points to fact or to fancy.
difference of opinion about
is

is

what

This

at least partly

due

to the different types of

object

toward which our hypotheses are directed.
:

There are
simple

at least three

such types observable natural processes, matheIt is fairly

matical and logical systems, and minds.
to verify

an hypothesis about an observable natural process; define your hypothesis exactly, perform an experiment and

120

A PHILOSOPHICAL
its

PROBLEM
results,

observe

results

exactly,

compare the

and the
is

verification
place.

(or falsification)

of the hypothesis has taken

Likewise in logic and mathematics, verification

a simple matter.

hypothesis

The consistency or may be shown by repeated

inconsistency of the

deductive operations

that can be carried out by any rational

mind and

will be
if

carried out so that the conclusion will be the

same

the

premises are the same.
other minds
is

But

if

you ask

how

the existence of

verified,

you find yourself in a muddle.

is sure that there are other minds besides his own and almost everyone thinks he knows how he verifies the hypothesis that they exist. One does it by direct intuition; another, by analogy from behavior; another, by extrasensory 4 perception; another by communication through language. However we do it, it is surely not in the same way that we verify natural processes, for other minds are not observable by the senses; nor in the same way that we verify a logical or mathematical result, because other minds are not abstract terms and relations. What, then, happens to make us so sure that we have verified the presence of another mind which we cannot see

Everyone

physically or prove deductively?
see

Social objects force us to

what

is

implicit in physical
that
all

and

logical objects, but less

patent

—namely,

verification rests

on

postulates.
self,

5

Unless

we presuppose

the unity of the verifying

the

presence of data within self-experience, the purpose of verification, the validity of reason, the trustworthiness of

memory
reality

(when

tested

of an objective
verified,

by reason), the world which

reality of time,
is

and the
be shared

there

when

not observed or
it

no

verification can occur.

If it is to

also

4 See the valuable article by H. H. Price on "Our Evidence for the Existence of Other Minds," in Philosophy, 13(1938), 425-456, and H. Dingle's criticism of it in the same journal, 14(1939), 457-467. 5 See Brightman, Art.(i938).

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
None
of these

121

presupposes other minds.

presuppositions

can be verified either by sense perception or by mathematical
all of them must be granted if any verification of any kind of hypothesis is to go on. Are these presuppositions merely arbitrary ? Or is there some ground for them ?

proof; yet

Surely they are not wild fancies.

They

are basic truths.
fact that
itself

How

do we know they are truths ?
(as far as

Simply by the

they are beliefs which form a system consistent with

and consistent
If

we know) with
all this

every phase and

type of experience.
the reader inquires

what

has to do with religion,
is

he has a right to an answer.
physical process;
it

Religion

not an observable

is

not a syllogism or a mathematical
therefore unrea-

formula;
to other

it is

a conscious experience that includes reference
6

minds,

human and

divine.

It

is

sonable to expect a religious belief to be verified or falsified

by sense observations or by formal logico-mathematical operations.

Religious
all

verification

or

falsification

must take

place as

our

social

knowledge

does,

and

in the light of

the presuppositions of verification.

A

religious belief can

be verified only by
a

its

relation to the system of our beliefs as

whole which have the marks of consistency with one another and with experience. No verification can hope for more than this in principle. As Dickinson S. Miller has said, the problem can be solved only in "the forum of the 7 individual mind."
(5) Reinterpretation. stage of verification, is

When
it

thought has reached the
at the

then

end of

its

journey?
is

May
there

it

finally rest?

No;

neither in science nor in religion
is

an
is

end.

No

verification

completely

inclusive.

There
6
7

no

test that

does not need retesting.

Nothing

is

Mind

is

here used as synonymous with person.
verification, that of logical

For a contradictory view of

positivism, see Ayer,

LTL.

122

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM

being.

The Absolute the all-inclusive whole of may lead to deeper insight. requires reinterpretation. The PsalmEvery interpretation ist's word, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh," must
absolute short of

—

Every stage of insight

have been written for men who believe that human knowledge can completely compass the infinite. We cannot reach
the end; but as long as

we

live

and use sound method, we

may grow

endlessly.

Reinterpretation does not imply that

when

it

goes on,
It

found to be false. not require groundless rejection of any faith. It
every belief
will be

we now hold

does

requires,

rather, the recognition of incomplete proof, incomplete un-

derstanding, and incomplete information, together with insight into the

method

of philosophical interpretation

which
reality.

constantly corrects and supplements, but never absolutely

completes man's fragmentary but growing grasp of

§ 6.

What

Is

the Criterion of Religious Truth?

The

question about the criterion of religious truth has

already been given a preliminary answer, namely, that the
consistency of our beliefs with each other and with experience
is

the test of the truth of religious beliefs.

The
is

suggested criterion

is

obviously the same criterion that
life to

applied in science and in daily

detect the presence
to truth.

of error

and

to

measure our approximation

Should
If a

a different criterion be applied in religious matters?

different criterion
it

were proposed,

let it

be what
?

it

will,

could

be such as to allow truth to be inconsistent

Could conreli-

tradictory propositions be true in religion?

Or could

gious truth be of such a nature as to be irrelevant to experience?

Could

belief in
its

God

be entertained, for example,
?

without regard to

relation to the facts of experience

If

a totally different" criterion

were applied, we should indeed

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
!

123

have a "double truth."

One kind

of truth

would be based

on a rational interpretation of experience; the other kind would be based on its own criterion and would be exempt from any criticism arising in reason or experience (except
the privileged experience of
its

own

criterion).

To

raise

such questions

is

to

answer them.

All truth accepted by

any mind is subject and experience.
But there
is

to the jurisdiction of that

mind's reason

implicit in the apparent absurdity of the fre-

quent appeal for a separate criterion for religious truth,

one factor of

real importance,
its

namely, the

justified

demand
nor

on the part of religion that

claims shall be judged on the

basis neither of abstract a priori considerations alone

of nonreligious experiences alone.

In seeking for religious

truth, all that a priori logic can offer
all

secular experience

must be considered; must be weighed; but the vital quessaid to

tion of the truth

and value of religion cannot be

have

been approached until the actual evidence of religious experience
is

interpreted.
is

Neither physics nor psychology
to pass

nor philosophy

competent

any judgment, favorable
confirming or
is.

or unfavorable, on religion until religious values have been

considered; one cannot

know whether one
knows what

is

refuting religion until one

religion

The
them

patent necessity of considering data before judging
establishes,

however, no unique

criterion.

Yet the

human mind

has always struggled against the demands of

reason, or (to take a
9

more
Not

historical

view) has come very

slowly to a recognition of
the field of religion.

its

universal claims, especially in

rational interpretation of experiis

ence, but instinct, or custom, or tradition,

the criterion

8 Gilson, RRMA, gives reasons for maintaining that this view was not held even in the Middle Ages. 9 See the discussion of the problem in Brightman, ITP, 31-66, and Montague,

WK.

i2 4

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
The
first is

appealed to by great masses.
clergy

often cited by the

which found religion on "race and blood"; but the lack of any
and
is

also the support of totalitarian views

clear definition of instinct renders the concept useless as a
criterion.

Conflicting customs and
for

traditions

furnish

no

criterion

choice

among them.

Others,

holding that
a test

religion

is

universal (a questionable proposition in itself),

insist that

universal agreement {consensus gentium)

is

on any matter of importance; many reject evolution, medicine, and the calculations of astronomy, not to mention God, freedom, and immortality; and even if there were universal agreement on a proposition, the truth of the proposition would not be tested by the agreement (for there was once agreement on animism and a flat earth), but rather by the reasons which Others have appealed to feeling as a led to the agreement.
of truth.
is

But there

no

universal agreement

test of truth;

but the notoriously varying moods of feeling
true.
is

contain no principle for determining which of two equally
strong, but conflicting, feelings
is

Hence no

religious

feeling, either of belief or of doubt,

to be regarded as true

because of

its

intensity.

The
At

five criteria just

examined
is

are plainly unacceptable.

least five
it

other criteria have been proposed.
is

Sense ex-

perience,
objective

source of

means of access to would deny that it is a reality. No philosopher But something more than sense real knowledge.
often said,
the one
is

experience

needed
is

to test

whether
is

a

dream, an

hallucination, or a mirage

a veridical perception;

sense experience

not

all

of experience.

an and The fundamental
illusion,
It

problems of philosophy of religion turn about the relation
of value experience to sense experience.
is

purely arbi-

trary to elevate sense experience to a preferred position while

ignoring the fact that values are as truly present in consciousness as are sense data.

To

select sense data as

being

A PHILOSOPHICAL

PROBLEM

125

normative without considering the claims of value experience
is

to

be dogmatic.

Sense data must be seen in the light of

the rest of experience and must be rationally interpreted.
Intuition
intuition
is is

a principle often appealed to as criterion. that
is,

By

meant immediate knowledge,

awareness

of a content (a quality or a principle) as given in experience

and not derived from reasoning. Sense experience, for instance, is one example of intuition; value experience is another; experience of space and time is intuitional. That intuitions lie at the basis of all our knowledge is certain, and
that

many
it is

intuitions are true

is

at

least

highly probable.

But

not possible to distinguish a genuine intuition from

a disguised appeal to feeling (a rationalization of desire)

without consulting some criterion other than intuition
self.

it-

Particularly

is

this true of religious intuitions

when

they

come

in the

form
as

of belief in revelation.

It is

charac-

teristic of religions,

we have

seen, to
it

make

revelation-

claims.

When God
is

has spoken,

seems irreverent to ask

for further evidence,

much more

so to raise questions.

But

the fact

that the intuition, "I

am now
as

hearing the voice
Judaeo-Christian.

of God," accompanies contradictory beliefs, even within the
scriptures

of

one religion, such

the

Therefore
intuition.

all intuitions,

including

all
is

religious ones,

need

to be tested

by some criterion that

not merely one more

In

common

with

all

of the criteria thus far protest

posed, intuition, however inadequate as a

of truth,

is

of

the utmost importance as a source of truth.

Even

instinct,

custom, and tradition
is

very widely accepted
is

what

strongly felt

may suggest some truths to us; what may be accepted for good reasons, may also be true; and sense data are cerYet in every instance some
test

tainly sources of truth.

must

be applied to

sift

the truth

from the

error.

In philosophical discussion, correspondence often appears
as a candidate for criterion in chief.

Correspondence

is,

in

i

26

A PHILOSOPHICAL

PROBLEM
is

fact, the definition of truth; a

proposition

true

if

what

it

asserts
is

corresponds to the object about which the assertion made, and we should naturally expect a definition to serve as criterion of the presence or absence of what is de-

fined.
it is

Correspondence, however,

fails

us in this respect;
It is
it

not a criterion of truth nor even a source of truth.

not a criterion of truth for the simple reason that

can
of

never be applied.

Propositions

are

about the past, the

present, the future, the timeless, or

them.

It is

clear that
to

ways impossible
past, a future,

alit is now, at compare a present proposition with a or an eternal object; such comparison would

some combination this present moment,

require the past, the future, or eternity to be
for comparison, a plain impossibility.

now

present

Even propositions

about the present are incapable of being tested by corre-

spondence; for the process of comparison would take time

and
ence

ere

it

had occurred the present
It is

object

would have
it

be-

come

past.
is

equally difficult to doubt that correspondto believe that
is

what we mean by truth and
10

a

usable criterion or a source of truth.

There remain two
at

criteria

which

are the ones chiefly used

the present time by philosophers.

They

are practical
1X

results

and coherence.
test

Those who regard

practical results as

Pragmatism is one of the few original contributions which American philosophy has made, and it has exerted a wide influence on all fields including philosophy of religion. The empirical method of the present work owes much to both James and Dewey. Pragmatism, however, is a broad phase of the
being the
of truth are called pragmatists.
10 See Pratt, PR, 74-97. 11 The literature of pragmatism

to

is so extensive that no attempt will be made here do more than mention four notable works: William James's Pragmatism, John Dewey's Logic, W. P. Montague's The Ways of Knowing (this last contains one of the best criticisms of pragmatism), and Ralph Barton Perry's The Thought and Character of William fames, a gem of American philosophy.

A PHILOSOPHICAL
empirical

PROBLEM

127

matist, as

true

if it

movement rather than a precise system. A pragis well known, is one who says that an idea is works, or has practical consequences. This makes

an immediate appeal to the religious mind, which cares more for the actual religious experience than for the philosfruits ye shall
will,

ophy or theology which interprets or validates it. "By their know them"; "if any man willeth to do his
he
shall

know

of the teaching."

Jesus seems to be prag-

matic, and the religious thinkers of India are even

more

12

so.

Furthermore, pragmatism brings religion and science close
together.

Each uses the

test of

consequences; indeed each
eighteenth- and nineteenth-

speaks of experiment

—or

at least

century Christians often referred to "experimental Christianity,"

an empirical testing of

religion.

That all practical consequences of ideas are facts which must be considered; that a belief that is not tested in experience is blind and useless; and that pragmatism is a sane, radical challenge to dogmatism cannot well be denied. Yet there is one central difficulty in pragmatism which makes it very difficult to apply. That difficulty is the ambiguity of its fundamental criterion of practical results. What, exactly, is meant by practical ? What is meant by saying that an idea works? In one sense, every idea that we can fool
ourselves or others with

may

be said to work to that extent.
it

Belief in transubstantiation

works among Catholics;

does

not
to

work among Methodists or Quakers; it is utter nonsense Mohammedans or Shintoists. The belief in the omnipotence of God may work for the purpose of elevating the
spirit, yet

not

work

at all for the

purpose of explaining con-

crete evils in the world.

Belief in the efficacy of the bones

For the quotations from Jesus see Mt. 7:16 and Jn. 7:17. See also the sarpragmatic remark of the man born blind: "Why, herein is the marvel, that For Indian ye know not whence he is, and yet he opened mine eyes" (Jn. 9:30). religion see Glasenapp, Art. (1927).
castically

12

i28

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
until
it is

of a saint

may work

found that

his skull

is.

on
is

ex-

hibition at several different shrines.

This ambiguity of terms and of their application
clear

so

great that pragmatists have not been able to arrive at any

agreement on

definitions.

If

"practical"

and "work"
only adds
they are
if

are not defined exactly, the use of
to the confusion of

them

as criteria

thought and

belief.

But
all

defined exactly and used thoroughly, they turn into a mandate to examine
all

the evidence, especially

of the conse-

quences of action, in the light of the mind's
In other words,

total experience.

when

taken thoroughly, the pragmatist's

criterion turns into coherence.

Coherence

is

essentially the

method

of verification deit:

scribed earlier in this chapter.

To

restate
is

according to

the criterion of coherence, a proposition
true
if

to be treated as

(i)

it is

self-consistent, (2)

it is
it

consistent with all of
is

the

known

facts of experience, (3)

consistent with
that
is

all

other propositions held as true by the
this criterion, (4)

mind

applying

it establishes explanatory and interpretative between various parts of experience, (5) these relations include all known aspects of experience and all known problems about experience in its details and as a whole. It is to be noted that coherence is more than mere consistency; the latter is absence of contradiction, whereas the former requires the presence of the empirical relations mentioned under points (4) and (5) thus consistency is necessary to

relations

;

coherence, but consistency

is

not

sufficient.

Two
to the

very important additional points about coherence
(1) Since coherence requires a reference

should be noted.
of the

whole of experience, some hypothesis about the nature whole is essential to the working of this criterion. (2) Since experience and science are constantly growing, the application of coherence cannot arrive at fixed and static results. It is a principle of constant reorganization, a law

A
of criticism

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
and growth, rather than
a closed system.
all

129

Cothis

herence can never be fully applied until
all

thinking about
prac-

possible experience has

been finished; however, in
all

it is

no worse

off

than pragmatism, which requires

tical results.

This does not
In fact,

mean

that all our present beliefs
until

are erroneous

and that no truth can be known
it

we

know
to

all

truth.

may be

a very coherent hypothesis

assume that some truths (such as the validity of coherence and the need of consulting experience) will always be true

no matter what
proved until
all

else

is

true.

Nevertheless, the criterion of

coherence implies that no truth can be completely tested or
truth
is

known; perhaps
truth.

just the facts

which
all

we do

not yet

or rejection of any

know may known
all

be required for the modification

On

the other hand,
tests,

of

the results offered by
insights

other proposed

revelations, or

and

its

must come before the tribunal of the whole mind grasp on experience as a whole. This, and this only,
or "verifies" a scientific hypothesis or a religious

justifies

faith.

13

§

7.

The Problem

of Religious Certainty

The
fails to

author's view of the criterion of coherence just preit

sented has been subjected to criticism on the ground that
afford the certainty that
is

needed

if

religion

is

to be a

vital factor in life.

and from the

left.

The attack has come both from the right The right-winger, Edwin Lewis, speaks
and
to say to

Brightman, ITP, 58-66, 368-369, and Coherence as criterion is to be distinguished from the so-called coherence theory of truth, which is a doctrine of metaphysical absolutism.
a fuller discussion of coherence see
to.

For

the literature there referred

130

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
14

unnecessary skepticism into the very heart of existence."

On

the other hand, the left-winger,

Henry Nelson Wieman,
have only a specula-

opposes the proposed use of the coherence criterion on the

ground

that

it

would
and

justify beliefs that

tive probability,

whereas
stable

we need

to build,
15

he thinks, on

more

certain

foundations.

Wieman would

accordingly restrict religious beliefs to propositions about
the structure of nature which have assured scientific certainty.

John Dewey, however, in

his

The Quest
from

for Cer-

tainty (1929) takes a position differing

that of both

Lewis and Wieman.
even to seek certainty.
get
all
it

He

holds, in substance, that the great

error of both philosophy

and religion has been

to claim or

In the nature of the case,

we

cannot

without deceiving ourselves.
get,
is

we can

perience.

and an exploration of the possibilities of exDewey's view, which has much to commend it,
can
get,

What we

was in some respects anticipated by F. J. McConnell's little book on Religious Certainty (1910). Additional light on this vexed problem was shed by the German psychologist and philosopher, Karl Groos, in an 16 essay entitled "The Problem of Relativism." He points out (p. 471) that there is no way of securing objective truth except "by the way of subjective conviction." Now, Groos
holds that, although
"it is

one of our

beliefs that objective,

overindividual validity attaches to
intuitions
strictly.

many
all

of our subjective

and experiences,"
it

it

is

impossible to prove this

Thus, while theoretically
is

proof

is

relative

not absolute, practically

rational to believe that

and some

propositions are really true.

For

instance,

who

can doubt

14 See Lewis, GO, 19-46. 15 These views have been expressed in personal correspondence. 16 This essay appeared in both German and English in the short-lived

minds than his own; but who can prove Thus "theoretical relativism is it with absolute certainty? united with practical absolutism." There seems little objection to this procedure, and much value in it, as long as we follow Groos's demand "that we treat our beliefs, whenever they persist in the face of cool reflection on the situation,
that there are other
as absolute truths, at least

on Lewis's assumpand more experimental and constructive than on Wieman's.
rational than
§ 8.

more

The Central

Beliefs of Religion

some attempt has been made to show that religion is a philosophical problem, and to indicate by what methods and criteria philosophy may deal with
In this chapter
religion.

In order to prepare the reader for the following

chapters, this chapter will be brought to a close

ment
to the

of the

fundamental religious
fact.
It is

beliefs

by a statesummarizing our
is

study of religion as a

these beliefs that give rise
it

problem of philosophy of religion and
shall

to

them

that

we

turn our attention.

They

are

the beliefs:

That there is an objective source of value expressing itself in the cosmos (the Divine, the object of worship; gods or God; called by J. B. Pratt "the Determiner of Destiny"); (2) That human individuals experience values (whether alone in "solitariness" or in group relations) and (3) That religious value is experienced as a relation of the human individual to the Divine. It remains to examine these beliefs and their implications for thought and for
(1)

—

—

experience: (1) in Chapters

V-X;

(2) in Chapters XI-XIII;

and (3)

in

Chapter XIV.

i32

A

PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM
Bibliographical

Note

Elementary surveys of the problem of the chapter are found in texts. See, for instance, Schiller, ROS(i8qi, 1910), 3-14; Drake, PRO916), Chap. XVI; Wright, SPR(i935), 1-7; Burtt, TRP(i938), 1-13. The chapter on "Mistaken Notions" in Ferm, FCRP(i937), 33-55, is clarifying. See also Brightman, ITP

and sociological fact (Chapter II). We were then able to view it as a value phenomenon (Chapter III), after which its setting as a philosophical problem was

pointed out (Chapter IV).

We

are

now

ready to begin

with a more analytic investigation of special problems and

we choose

to

begin with the problem of God.

Why
as

is

this starting point preferable to
it

any other?
start

In

one sense,
long as
of

makes no
think.
a

difference

where we

thinking,

we

On

the other hand, the conception

God

widely.

facing at

complex one about which opinions differ There are, nevertheless, three good reasons for once this fundamental problem. In the first place,
is

the idea of
ligion
is

God
some

is

uniquely essential to religion.

All re-

and without an object (or at least an objective) of worship, religion would not be at all. Religion is not unique in being a social phenomenon or even in being an interest in values; it is
in

sense a

form

of worship,

the worshipful attitude, the attitude of reverent devotion
to

something divine, that marks

it

off

from other
of

experiences.

This attitude would be impossible without an object toward

which

it

was

directed.

The
133

definition

the

religious

i34

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
is
it

object

therefore the fundamental problem
is

of religion.

Until

dealt with

we do
is

not

know whether

or not

we

have

a

religious

phenomenon

before us.

In the

second

place, the idea of

God

a

The

religious conception of
it

God

good empirical starting point. is not a mere theological

theory;

is

a

summation
It

of the highest aspirations of re-

ligious experience, a

shorthand account of the value-claims
therefore affords a fruitful starting

of the worshipers.

point for philosophical investigation of experience.
third place, ideas of
ligions,

In the

and even
it

God vary so widely in different reamong believers in the same religion, as
them can be
to challenge philosophical investigation.

to

make
It

rationally impossible that all of

true

and therefore

may

be thought that the existence of atheistic religion,
its

such as Jainism in
sential
to

earliest

form, or humanism,

may
es-

refute the statement that the idea of
religion.

God

is

uniquely

However, for our present purpose, which includes all religions and all ideas of God, the atheistic religions are to be viewed as atheistic only in the sense of denying a cosmic objective spirit; yet even early Jainism and Buddhism and (much more) modern humanism all point toward a supreme value toward which they assume a worshipful attitude. Even where God is taboo, the most atheistic religion assumes some objective which is worthy of worship and devotion, and this objective is actually
its

god.

A

religion,

then, can be

atheistic

in

the sense

of denying
religion at

some
all
if

particular idea of
it

God;
is

it

cannot be a

denies that there

anything in the

universe worthy of
§ 2.

human

reverence and devotion.

God

as Objective
else

Source and Conserver of Values

Whatever

may

or

may

not be said about God, re-

ligion at every stage has been worship, together with striv-

ing toward what was believed to be the source and the

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
guarantee of the highest values
shiper valued most highly.

135

—

at least of

what the wor-

Ritual, prayer, church, priest,

hymns

of praise, moral teachings, faith in immortality

—

all

were directed toward an assertion of or a search for the power on which value depends. The statement, "God is
the creator of the universe," or "the source of
all

being,"

is

an irreligious statement,
thought of
as

if it

means
all

that whatever
is

may

be

the source of

being

therefore to be
is

regarded as God.
such a creator God.
source of value
is

When
Only

the creative
it

power

thought of
to call
if

as evil or as indifferent to value,

is

blasphemous
is

the source of value

God;

the

also the redeemer, as Irenaeus held, so

much

the better; and this better has been the faith of most

on the highest level of its development. But much religion has been dualistic; and such religion has excluded from God "the world," "the flesh," "Satan," "Ahriman," "Maya," or whatever by its nature opposes or conceals or is indifferent to value. On the other hand, no religion has
religion

ever thought of
accessible to
it;

God
and

except in terms of the highest values
it

has always thought of its God as something assuring or symbolizing the permanence of those

values.

Noteworthy
India,
it is

is

the wide range of values symbolized in

conceptions of the divine.
the milk supply;

Among
among

the
the

Africa, health, plenty,

and

success in

Todas of Southern Bagunda of Central war; in Persian and
*

among Buddhists, Hebrew and Christian prophets, justice and love; among the Mohammedans, mercy; among the Brahmans, cosmic unity; among the Whether referring to milk Aristotelians, complete actuality.
Canaanitic religions, agricultural
fertility;

conquest of desire;

among

the

or to complete actuality, the idea of
levels
1

God

at all stages

and

is

consistently an idea about value.
2

Aristotle
9.

2

treats

See Wright, SPR, 19, 31-32.

In Met., XII (Lambda),

;

136

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
same
as

"theiotaton" and "timiotaton" as synonyms: "most divine"
is

the

"most valuable."
if

Here the philosopher agrees

with the humblest believer;

we

are to have a

God

at all,

we must have

a being that

is

a trustworthy source of value.

When
means
ever").

Spinoza sought for God, he sought something by
of
3

which "continua
("I

ac

summa

in

aeternum fruerer
is

laetitia"

may

enjoy continuous and supreme joy for-

Ens perfectissimum
for

(most perfect being)

a

synonym

God among
(the

the scholastics.

Kant
says,

calls

God
is

"the moral lawgiver," or "the highest good."

Jacobi, "das

Allerhochste"
the one

Highest of
is
4

all)

;

Fries

"God

who

alone

holy" and "the reality of the ideal

of the eternal good."

the "higher part of the universe"
is

William James speaks of God as 5 for W. E. Hocking, God
'

"an Other whose relation
its

through

own

defect."

me is not H. N. Wieman
to

subject to evil
identifies

God

with "that process of existence which carries the

possibilities

Although Matthew Arnold's of the highest value." famous definition of God as "the power not ourselves that makes for righteousness" has often been criticized, it is historically justifiable as what may be called a minimum s definition of God. Such a definition does not disclose whether God is a mind, a group of minds, a drinking bout on Mt. Olympus, an ideal, a Platonic idea, or unconscious energy; it reveals only what all religion has experienced, namely, that faith in God is faith in something better than ourselves which leads us to a higher level of living. God, then, is, as Eduard von Hartmann puts it, "the ground of
3

Spinoza,

De

intellectus

emendatione

tractatus, first paragraph.

4 Fries,
5

WGA,
VRE,

310, 309.
516. 223.

James,

6
7

Hocking,

MGHE,

Wieman in Macintosh (ed.), RR, 159. 8 H. N. Wieman is especially well known for through his own minimum definition just stated.

his

approach

to

the problem

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
love between individuals"
to the
9

i37

—

if

by love

is

meant devotion

mutual realization of the highest values. Whatever further differences of opinion we may discover about the definition of God, and whatever doubts we may entertain about the truth of any particular idea of God, there can be no well-grounded difference or doubt about the empirical fact that whenever men have taken a religious

God they have entered into a relation to the highest value known to them, and that in some sense this relation has always been an objective one. God is always beyond the present achievement of man and is objective, either as a reality to be known and appropriated or as a goal to be sought. God is never used as a name for man as he now is. God means that toward which man moves when he rises in the scale of value, viewed as a source
attitude

toward a

of that

movement.
as Personified Particular
first

§ 3.

God

Value (Polytheism)

When we
there are

find gods in the clear light of history,

many of them. The vague tradition of belief in one High God may reflect a primitive monotheism of some kind. If so, the very word "High" as applied to God evidences the exalted value attached to the divine; but our

knowledge of
inferences.

this stage of belief

is

too
is

dim

What we

are sure of

that

a long time in his history believing in

to warrant many we find man for many gods, each god
spirit

regarded

as a

vaguely personal (or impersonal-mana)

which is the source of some energy which brings value to man. There are gods of rivers, springs, trees, rains; of fertility, of motherhood, of fatherhood, of love; of peace, war, hunting, planting, trades, and professions; of wisdom, of music, and of truth. It is believed that even when man
9

Hartmann, KGTR,

in

AW,

I,

640.

138

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
some one
is

sees disaster,

of these gods
is

is

at

work

or

may
ill,

be
but

called on.
der,

It

thunders, but Zeus
father of gods

the source of the thun-

and he

and men.

We
may

are

proper
ing.

rites in

the temple of Aesculapius

bring healinco-

Polytheism, the belief in

many

gods, entails

herent views of the operation of the laws of nature and of
the relations of the contending values and gods to each
other.

Polytheism

is,

however, religiously important

as a

phenom-

enon which has continued for centuries and still persists in some sections of Asia and Africa, to say nothing of its sporadic revival among civilized peoples (as in old TeuIts religious importance tonic cults in modern Germany). is twofold: it illustrates (i) the uniform connection of the
idea of

God

with value experience,

as well as the

wealth

and variety of that experience, and also (2) think of god or gods as conscious persons.
it

a

tendency to

Philosophical

interpretations of this second point vary widely;

some put
it

down
it

merely

to

"anthropomorphism" and regard

as

man's tendency to create a
see in
all

God

in his

own image;

others

a necessary implication of value experience, since
is

value

by

its

very nature the fulfillment of an ideal

purpose by some conscious being.
festation of
latter,
it

view, the personification of values in

According to the former many gods is a manito the

man's arrogance or narcissism; according

is

a crude and inadequate, yet rightly directed,

manifestation of man's intelligence in grasping the true

nature of value experience.

This problem

is

one of the

central ones in philosophy of religion
at

and

will be treated

some length
4.

in

Chapter VII.

§

God

as Personified

National

Spirit

(Henotheism)
intelligently

As

civilization advances,

men become more

conscious of the coalescence of their various values, and

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
polytheism tends toward some sort of unity.
find empirically
of the
is

139

What men

that their values are largely expressions

and the geographical enand national life. As the national life becomes more closely organized under one supreme monarch, so the pantheon (the hierarchy of all the gods) becomes more closely organized under one supreme god (or two, like Isis and Osiris, thought of as
traditions,

the

culture,

vironment of their

racial

substantially one).

Where

the national unity

is

loose, as

supreme god, Zeus, has a rebellious group of undergods on his hands; but where the national unity is closely knit, the supreme god tends to be regarded as absolute ruler, and (at least among the thoughtful priests) the one god of the nation. Among the Hebrews, Jahve is less dependent on national unity and more on ethical
in Greece, the

idealism.

On

the level of national religion, the supreme god

is

rarely thought of as the only god.

Even among the

early

Hebrews, the gods of other nations were recognized as having a certain status, and Chemosh of Moab or Dagon of Philistia was acknowledged in international relations.

The

point of regarding

God

as personified national spirit

was that the highest aspirations of the national group were thus objectified. The term henotheism is often used to describe belief in and worship of one god as supreme, 10 accompanied by recognition that others exist. The situation of henotheism was rendered embarrassing by the fact that creation myths (connecting the source of value with
the source of existence) arose in connection with the various national

gods;

it

gradually became necessary to

decide
a

whether the creator of the universe was an Egyptian,
10
is

The Vedic

practice of treating each

god
as

in succession as the only

one while

it

being worshiped had better be called kathenotheism (one-at-a-time-theism), as

Menzies suggests, rather than henotheism,

Max

Miiller proposed.

140

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
11

Greek, a Hebrew, or a Babylonian.

Henotheism was an

impossible stopping place for religious development.

§

5.

God

as

Supreme Personal Creator (Monotheism)

The
As

usual development of the idea of

God

in

zations has therefore been

from henotheism

to

most civilimonotheism.

the social, the political, the ethical, and the intellectual

horizons of

men

widened, the similarity of the highest

spiritual values for

which every nation was

striving

came

to

be appreciated; the unity of the laws of cosmic nature
of

and

human

nature was realized; the religious man, like

Saint Paul, could say,

"He

left

not himself without witness"

(Acts 14:17), and a religious philosopher, like the
peror Marcus Aurelius, no longer

Em-

made

national success

his criterion, but asked of every experience "what value it v has for the whole universe." ~ The inevitable inference

from all outcome

this

was

that there

is

only one God.

Such was the
or less inde-

of

the highest religious

thought of Egypt, of

Israel, of India, of

Greece, and of

Rome.

More

pendently, there grew up the idea of one supreme personal
that
spirit,

the source of

all

value and the creator of
Spiritual,

all

exists

other

than

himself.

personalistic

monotheism expresses the faith of most actual religions at what they regard as their highest point. Therefore philosophy of religion must largely concern itself with the 13 question whether this belief is a true one. Inquiry has for the most part centered about the concept of creation.
11

Robert
is

Munson

Grey,

/,

Yahweh (Chicago:

1937),

a vivid, fictional account of the

Willett, Clark and Company, development of God from the national to
01'

the universal level.
12

See also Roark Bradford,
Brothers, 1928).
,

Man Adam

an' his Chillun

(New York: Harper and
13

faith gives an importance to the problem of might not deserve in the abstract. A well-known philosopher of religion once expressed some resentment over the inquiry into personal and impersonal views of God; he went so far as to imply that it is no more important

M. Aurelius, Meditations III, 11. The empirical fact of monotheistic

the personality of

God which

it

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
That a unified view must be sought
but there
is is

141

generally granted;

difficulty

both in understanding creation and in

thinking of a good
evil things

God

as

voluntarily

creating

all

the

and persons
as

in the world.

§

6.

God

the

Whole

of Reality (Pantheism)

The

difficulty

about creation, the logical
lead

demand

for

complete unity, and the experience of mystical oneness with

God

have combined

to

some

religious

thinkers, es-

pecially in

separate

India, to the view that God is not a spirit from nature and man, who creates them and im-

parts value to them.

Rather, these thinkers hold,
are parts.

God

is

the whole of

which nature and man

Evil apof the

pears to exist because

we have an incomplete view
symphony
or a painting
is

whole.
tory by

No

part of a
it

satisfac-

itself;

is

the whole that provides true satisfaction

and true beauty.
the whole.

And
partial

everything that

is,

is

but a part of

The

view

may
is

be confusing, deceptive,

and seemingly
Plotinus;
in

evil; the

whole

clear as crystal,

and

perfect.

In Greece, this view appeared in Parmenides and later in
India
it

came

to

classic

expression

in

the
14

Upanishads and the brilliant Sankara (788P-820? a.d.). Although thinkers like Hegel and Royce objected to being
called pantheists, their idealistic absolutism,
all

Sometimes it has viewed the energy which all individuals are partial types of pantheism agree in .finding
lie

the source of religious value to

in the nature of the

whole, and religious experience to consist in the realization
of

membership

in or identity with the whole.

The

intel-

lectual difficulties of

pantheism center around the attempts
whole, and also in the
to the value

to define the precise nature of the

doubt about what happens
individual
§ 7.

and freedom

of the

when he
as

is

thus

merged with the whole.

God

the Unknowable Source of All Being (Agnostic Realism)

anyone possesses sufficient knowledge about the universe as a whole to base the value of his life and the validity of his religion on such a view
difficulty of asserting that

The

has led some religious thinkers to abandon both monotheism

and pantheism

in favor of agnostic realism.

Those who
or philo-

hold such a view point out that religion does not pretend
to be a matter of

human knowledge,

scientific

sophical.

It is

rather an aspiration toward the infinite, but

unknown
Religion

source of our experience of values, and of nature.
is

of mystery.

humble, and religion moves in the atmosphere God, therefore, is not any knowable or de-

unknowable source of the known. This somewhat sophisticated view came to its classical exfinable being;
is

God

the

pression in Herbert Spencer's (1820-1903) First Principles

The view though very learned,
(1862).
does, namely,
tion.
all, if
is
it

15

is
it

called

sophisticated

because,

al-

does what

sophistication usually
its

fails to see
is

the implications of

own

posi-

Sophistication

generally

unsophisticated.

After

one can say no more about

God

than that the divine

the unknowable, then one does not
15

know whether God

For a

criticism of Spencer's thought, see

Bowne, KS.

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
is

143

good or bad, wise or
If

foolish, noble or ignoble, spiritual

or material.

one does not

then

onjp

does not

know any of know whether religious

these things,

experience

is

seriously would very soon no positive religious attitude was reasonable; and he would find it hard to distinguish a mystery founded on nothing but ignorance from sheer mumbo jumbo.
see that
§ 8.

"Maya and illusion" or insight One who took Spencer's view

into the nature of the real.

God

as

Human

Aspiration for Ideal Values

(Humanism)
Groping
in ignorance

among unknowables

does not com-

modern mind as a useful approach to the divine. Unknowables are unknowable and had better be left alone; but (according to an influential modern mood) there is something we do know, namely, that man has aspirations for a nobler world, a more ideal society, a Auguste Comte (1798-1857), founder better way of living. of modern sociology, rejected all speculation about the
itself to

mend

the

ultimate nature of reality, whether theological

(personal

gods) or metaphysical (forces and energies), and held that

knowledge was confined to the "positive" sciences of experience. Hence his view was called positivism. Nevertheless, he was devoted to ideal values and his religion consisted in reverence for human personality and in altruistic endeavors to better man's condition. God, for him, was humanity itself, which he called "le grande etre." The German, Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), a so-called 16 left-wing Hegelian criticized by Engels and Marx, differed from Comte in that he believed metaphysical knowledge to be possible. He was a materialist, holding that man is what he eats ("Der Mensch ist, was er isst"). As regards religion, however, his view was close to that of Comte. God
16 See Engels, Feuerbach.

i

44

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
him
is

for

only man's idealized consciousness, and has only

a psychological existence in man's ence,

mind; no cosmic
17
t

exist-

and certainly no physiological organism.

In America,

more

or less independently of

Comte and
as religious

Feuerbach, there has arisen a

movement known
is

humanism, the
reality

essence of

which

the view that

God

is

to

be found in man's highest social experiences, not in any

beyond man.

Among
M.

the most thoughtful leaders

of this

movement

are

C. Otto, R.

W.

Sellars,

J.

A. C.

as "the

Fagginger Auer, and John Dewey. Dewey defines God unity of all ideal ends arousing us to desire and
actions."
18

This
a

is

put in explicit opposition to the view

that there

is

God

other than our pursuit of a unified ideal;

such a view, he thinks, would
then, for

make God nonideal. God, most humanists is an "active rela19 tion between ideal and actual." Communists, refusing to use the name of God, practically treat their cause as divine in accordance with humanistic principles. The members of this last group have so much in common with Comte and Feuerbach that all may well be called

Dewey and

for

humanists.

While humanism
Buddhism,
it

represents

a

radical break

with almost the entire history of religion, except for certain
aspects of primitive
It
is

cannot be rejected offhand.
spirit;
it

thoroughly in harmony with the empirical

shares the religious interest in values,
cretely in personal

and
413.

social experience;

and finds values conand it is devoted

17 See Feuerbach, 18 Dewey, CF, 42. 19 Dewey, CF, 51.

WC,

In Santayana's conception of religion as a play in the realm
actual.
is

humanism with almost no relation to the well-known quip that "there is no God and the Virgin Mary
of essence, a
illustrates his feeling for religion as beautiful,

we have

Santayana's

his

mother" well

but as concerned with the nonexistent.

A

humanism, much more dubiously religious in character, is that psychoanalytic view which regards "God" as a rationalization of the suppressed father-complex. Such a view completely evades the historical and philosophical
very different type of

problems.

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
to the active creation of that progress
otheists submissively leave to the will of
is

145

right in

its

insistence that religion

which some monGod. Humanism must find its evidence

in the facts of

human

experience.

Nevertheless, there are

some who question whether the
without the adjustment of
tive reality

facts of

can be understood or the highest

human experience human values achieved

human experience to an objecwhich is the source of its experience of values. Humanism wants to be certain in its foundations and to be modest in its claims; but perhaps if it is certain, it cannot be modest and if it is modest it will have to give up the quest for certainty in the interests of the quest
beyond
it

for higher value.
§ 9.

God

as

Superhuman and Supernatural Revealer
the present time

of Values (Deistic Supernaturalism)

There

is

at

Christians a

marked

revolt against

among a large group of humanism and in favor
toward God.

of a radically objective attitude
to this view,

According
all

God

is

not found in

human

experience at

except in so far as he chooses to reveal himself;
reveals himself
it is

when he

not as the highest

man

can think, but

rather as something "totally other" than everything
of a radically different quality

human, from human hopes and strivings as different from our best as eternity is from time. 20 Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish theologian, was

—

largely responsible for initiating this line of thought in the

nineteenth century, although

it

also has

much

in

common
as

with the system of John Calvin (1509-1564), as well with some of the beliefs of Martin Luther (1483-1546).

21

The phenomenal rise of modern religious thought
20 See the chapter
21

this
is
in

tendency in the world of
be traced to Karl Barth TMT.

to

on Kierkegaard

Mackintosh,

See Harkness, JC.

i

46

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
),

(1886-

a Swiss theologian,

who, under the influence

of the experiences of the

conception of God.
in

World War, rethought his whole Modern "liberalism," if not humanistic

the technical sense, has relied on
science,

human

experience,

human
for the

the collapse of

and human philosophy, but the War was human wisdom. Human values were used destruction of human values and thus their hollowMan's only hope, Barth believes, himself, his science, and his reason.
is

ness

was exposed.

in

ceasing to trust in

Man

his

trust in God or be doomed to ruin. God has revealed Word in the Bible, although it is presumptuous for any man to say that his interpretation of that Word is final. God himself, not man, must speak; he is the judge and the

must

controller of
is

life,

not man.

Since the element of judgment
is

so prominent, Barth's thought
(crisis

often called the

crisis

theology

being the Greek word for judgment).

Since Barth emphasizes the contrast and contradiction be-

tween God and the world, his system is also called dialectical theology. The world says, Yes, and God says, No; the 22 world says, No, and God says, Yes. Barth's popularity has increased since he became a hero by incurring exile from Nazi Germany for his refusal to retract a statement that Christians might be of two opinions about the cause of the burning of the Reichstag in 1933.

The Barthian
because
it

conception of

holds so emphatically that
it.

God may God

be called deism
is

other than the
23

world, and totally distinct from
it

For the same reason

may
This

be called supernaturalism, or neosupernaturalism.
deistic

supernaturalism

is

a

on the incompleteness of
there are
22

a purely subjective

wholesome emphasis humanism, but
as
a sympathetic introduction to
in

many

critics

who

think that Barthianism goes TMT,
is

The

chapter on Barth in Mackintosh,

Barthian thought and literature.
23 For a related view Meland, APR.
see the account of neosupernaturalism

Wieman and

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
far

147

roots

toward an unreasonable objectivism without subjective as humanism does toward an unreasonable subIn any case
it

jectivism without objective roots.

rests

on

presuppositions which
24

are all but unintelligible to

one

who

has any confidence in rational empiricism as the proper

approach to truth.

§

10.

God

as

the System of Ideal Values

(Impersonal Idealism)

There are those who cannot accept the personal God of monotheism, and yet are dissatisfied with all of the alternaPantheism and Absoluttive definitions hitherto proposed.
ism are for them too
the Best.
all-inclusive;

God

is

not the All, but
of
to

meaning.

To To

call

identify

God unknowable is to divest him God with human aspiration is

deny the objective reference of religious experience. To say that God is utterly superhuman and supernatural is to leave us without any adequate evidence in experience on which to build the idea of God. Hence this group defines God as the system of ideal values. Its members go back to Plato, and think of God as the eternal Forms (or Ideas) of Justice, Truth, and Love, although Plato himself never identified God with the Forms. Since the Forms are
thought of
a
as eternally valid ideals or principles,

God

is

not
26

person or a conscious
their

mind

for

members

of this group,

and

view

may

well be called impersonal idealism.

Fichte's

conception of
is

God

as

"the moral order of the
It

universe"

close to this view.

has had

its

most

explicit

modern formulation in E. G. Spaulding's The
24

the brief treatment of religion in

New

Rationalism, but intimations

Crisis,"
to

best criticism of Barth is found in A. C. Knudson, "The Theology of Meth. Rev., 111(1928), 329-343, 549-560. Barth is equally objectionable rationalists and to empiricists.

The

25

Many

"pantheists" are also impersonal idealists.

148

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
appear in
J.

of

it

S. Bixler's

Ingersoll Lecture

on Immortality

and the Present Mood.

The merit
esty;
its

of this view
lies

is its

intellectual clarity

and hon-

defect
in

in

its

incomplete metaphysics.
ideals
is

One

who

believes

eternal

objective

later ask

himself what the relation

must sooner or between those ideals

and the world

of brute empirical fact.

The

thinker can-

not permanently keep the world of ideals and the world
of facts in watertight compartments.

He must

relate

them

or else his thinking will be subject to the
is

Barthianism

—that
as

its

God and

its

same criticism as world are so far apart
each other.

that the
§

two stand

in

no

intelligible relation to

ii.

the Tendency of Nature to Support or Produce Values (Religious Naturalism)
reader will recall that in
§

God

The
all

2 above

it

was

said that

conceptions of

God have

in

common
It
is

the reference to a

source or conserver of values.
that the

evident by this time
to

word "conserver" must be taken

mean "he

(or

who, or that which, conserves," and that much of the purpose of modern thought about God has been to
those)

explore alternatives to the monotheistic idea of a personal
creator (§5).
§

All of the conceptions treated in
§
9,

§

6 through

10

(except that in

which

is

an alternative to the

and empirical approaches to God) are obviously intended as such alternatives. Yet none of them has been fully satisfactory. They suffer either from vagueness or from abstractness or from a lack of coherent interpretation. Yet they have in common a ruggedly honest determination to believe no more than the evidence requires them to believe, and to indulge in no unwarranted speculations. Since the death of the great philosopher Hegel in 1831, many thinkers have turned in the direction of what is now commonly called naturalism, a form of materialism.
rational

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
Materialism, as
its

149

name
else,

implies, holds that everything
is

is

reducible to matter; matter
reality,

really the
is

only substantial
not really "else,"

and anything
its

such as mind,

but

is

only a special form or an unsubstantial effect of

matter

—

"epiphenomenon,"

as

is

often

said.

The

older materialism (prior to the nineteenth century) tended
to follow

Democritus (460? to 370? b.c.) and Lucretius (96-55 b.c.) in holding that everything including mind is reducible to moving atoms which differ only in size, shape,

and motion.

This early view was a

brilliant anticipation

of certain aspects of

unsatisfactory, because the

modern science but was philosophically more we came to know about
it

physical reality the clearer

became
is

(to Descartes [1596-

1680] for example) that mind
sciousness has

not matter, and that con-

no physical

size or

shape or motion.

Furthe

ther, the rise of evolutionary theory in the nineteenth cen-

tury proved that matter was
early materialists

more complicated than

had thought. Hence modern materialists have tended to abandon the older word and to call their theory naturalism. The chief
naturalism are: (1) a tendency to accept the object of the physicochemical sciences (nature) as the unbegun
traits of

and unending source of
tion that nature
creative process;
is

all

cosmic process; (2) a recogniin the process of
its

not merely a collection of atoms, but a
creative

and (3) that

advance

new

properties arise

foreseen until they actually
are called emergents.
If

which could not have been appeared. These new properties
is

nature

fundamentally physico-

chemical,
life;

it

first

gives rise to an emergent
life

then after long ages,
as

gives rise to an

which we call emergent

known

mind

or consciousness.

Thus

the processes of

nature are an "emergent evolution" (Lloyd Morgan), and

naturalism has overcome the

of the universe as a cloud of atom-dust.

wooden and mechanical view This modern nat-

150

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
is

uralism

not dissimilar to the so-called dialectical ma-

terialism of the

Communists, which emphasizes the evoluof nature.

tionary
It

movement

has been necessary to give this brief explanation in or-

der to introduce religious naturalism or naturalistic theism,
as
it

is

sometimes

called.

It is

an interesting phenomenon

for students of religion that even materialists have usually

had some conception of God. But the gods of Democritus and Lucretius were of no importance to either theory or practice. They were otiose creatures, themselves products of matter, and taking care not to influence or be influenced by human affairs or the ongoing of nature. Such a view of the gods was purely mythical and of no philosophical
or religious import, for such gods explained nothing either
in nature or in the experience of value.

By

contrast with

such materialists

(who have
modern

a certain

analogue in Hobbes)

and

also

with the

atheistic materialists of the eighteenth

century in France,

naturalists are frequently

much

more comprehending
nature, born, as
of nature,"

in their attitude

see religious experience as a natural

toward religion. They phenomenon, rooted in
say, "in the

W. G. Everett used to and consequently as a fact
of Herbert Spencer (§7),
is

womb

to

be included in
false.

naturalism, not to be cast aside as trivial or

The view
the

Unknowable,

a case in point.

who defined God as He was a naturalist,
yet sympathetic with

rejecting all traditional ideas of

God,

the quest of religious experience for the source and conserver
of values.

Humanism (§8)
were plainly

offered another naturalistic

approach to the divine.
(§ 10), however,

Barthianism (§9) and Platonism
revolts against naturalism, the

former in the
ture.

interest of supernatural revelation,

and the

latter in the interest of rational ideals

independent of naat

Meanwhile,

naturalists

have been

work seeking

a

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
better expression of their

151

own

understanding of religion.
in defining

Thinkers of
influential

this sort

would agree

God

as the

tendency of nature to support or produce values.

Two

members of this group are the late Samuel Alexander (1859-1938), and Henry Nelson Wieman (1884) the former a British philosopher (born in Australia)

—

and the

latter

an American

—each a strikingly typical prod-

uct of his cultural background, yet agreeing in fundamental
principles.

Alexander's view was developed in his Gifford Lectures
of 1916 to 1918 at Glasgow, published as Space, Time,

and

Deity.

In

Book IV

of the second

volume

of that work,

Alexander develops his famous distinction between deity and God. Deity is the fact that just beyond any level of
evolution a
a

new emergent
:

level

is

to arise.

"On

each level
to
it

new

quality looms ahead, awfully,

which plays

the

part of deity."

God

is

the universe conceived as possess-

ing deity.

This view resembles humanism in regarding
as

human
differs

consciousness

being in a sense deity.

Yet

it

deity,

from humanism in holding that the human spirit is not for man, but for the lower level, body; the
soul
is

human

deity for the body, but in the next stage of

cosmic evolution, some unimaginable, yet inevitable, super-

man
its

is

deity for

man.

It

also differs

from humanism
not identified

in

metaphysical objectivity;
aspiration, but
is

God

is

with

human
as a

an objective character of nature

whole. God is objectively real, on this view, and no mere rationalization of subjective striving. Another naturalistic conception of God has been proposed by the distinguished American philosopher of religion, Henry Nelson Wieman. Wieman's naturalism is not in any sense an imitation of Alexander's; in fact, he has been far more influenced by John Dewey and A. N. Whitehead than by
26STD,
II,

348.

152

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
Nevertheless, the same general formula ap-

Alexander.

plies equally well to
is

Wieman's God and

to Alexander's:

God

the tendency of nature to support or produce

movement
For

toward perfection.
universe
is

For Alexander, God

is

the fact that the

always striving for a higher level of being.

Wieman,

name for "the growth of meaning and value in the world." More specifically, God is "increase in those connections between activities which make
likewise,
is

God

the

the activities mutually sustaining, mutually enhancing

and

mutually meaningful."

:

Thus God,
which render

for

Wieman, means

those energies of nature

possible the increase

of rational, social experience.

Like Alexander's, Wieman's view of

and

objective, in contrast

with the

God is naturalistic much more subjective
is

view of humanism.

But Alexander's view

less

empirical

and less true to the facts of the history of religion than is Wieman's. There is no empirical ground for suggesting that inorganic matter ever had a "religious" attitude toward
the next higher emergent,
life;

nor

is it

true to say that the
is

present worship of the religious consciousness

directed

toward "deity"

—the unknown and unknowable next emerWieman
is

gent of the evolutionary process.

is

much

nearer

the facts in holding that religion
values of truth

concerned with the

know—

and beauty and love the highest we now and with their ground in reality. Religion has alyet religious persons
as

—

ways included an element of mystery;
have never worshiped mere mystery
deity,

Alexander would

have them do, in looking ahead to the
the future.

unknown coming

nor has religion ever been directed exclusively toward

It has been concerned with adjustment to the permanent and the eternal, as well as with the improvement of the temporal. At this point, Wieman, too, is one-sided, in his definition of God in terms of growth alone. He is
27

Wieman, NPR,

51, 137.

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
right that belief in

153

God

is

a belief in betterment, in
is

growth,

in increase of value in the universe; but he

wrong

in under-

estimating the factor of permanence in the idea of God.

The
in

religious worshiper
as

God
as

an increaser

would not have much confidence of value unless he had a primary

confidence in

God

as conserver of value.

The thought

of

God

an eternally more lavish spender arouses suspicion of bankruptcy unless God is an even better saver than
spender.

To

speak more religiously,

God must

be a Savior
are
to

before he can be a Giver.

Suggestions like those of Alexander and
religiously useful as sincere

Wieman

and thoughtful endeavors

interpret

God

without recourse to the idea of a conscious,

personal mind.

They perform

the useful function of tiding

over religious values for those individuals

who

have become

doubtful of historical monotheism.

Yet there are
theism gives a

many
satis-

who wonder whether

this naturalistic

factory coherent account of the objective sources of

human

consciousness in nature, or of either the origins or the increase of value in nature.
§

12.

Conceptions of God as Revolutionary or Evolutionary
at least three possible

There are

ways of seeking

a better

understanding of the
that of rejecting
its

facts of religious experience.

One

is

and content as a congeries of error and illusion, devised either by the subconscious to satisfy its hidden cravings or by "priests" to ensure their social and economic control of society. This way is sweepingly dogmatic and naive; nevertheless it is possible that its results may be true. The history of astrology or of magic
entire history
is

a history of error; perhaps the history of religion

is.

It

is

not philosophical, however, to declare that either astrology

or

magic

is

error until

all

experiences of

all

astrologers

i

54

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
fully
to

and magicians have been would be unphilosophical experiences and beliefs of
vestigated.

investigated.

So,

too,

it

dismiss religion before the

religious persons

have been

in-

Leaving, then, an attitude of either acceptance or rejection
of religious faith to the

outcome of philosophy of

religion,

most thinkers regard
ence.

initial

skepticism as unreasonable, and

devote themselves to an interpretation of religious experi-

The

various conceptions of

God which we have been

surveying are so

many

attempts to arrive at a rational in-

These attempts are governed by different presuppositions, depending on different attitudes toward the monotheism which is the culminating faith of most historical religions at their maturity. Given religious experience as a fact, and monotheistic belief
terpretation of the facts of religion.
as a typical constituent of that experience, philosophers

who

respect the empirical data inquire into the direction in
rational progress in religious thought should

which

move.

Very few
is

thinkers,

if

any, believe that the essential prob-

lems have already been solved so completely that no progress
necessary.
It
is

true that scholastics

and neoscholastics
that the philosophis

speak of the Aristotelian-Thomistic synthesis as the philosophia perennis in such a
ical

truth

about
LS

God

is

way as to imply known and

known

to

be

However, the constant productivity of neoscholastics implies the need of incessant rational investigation and the possibility of new discoveries. Yet, as a
unchangeable.
matter of
fact, the scholastic

moment those who reject who adhere fixedly to concentury, we find the great
and
also

majority of thinkers about religion agreeing on the value

and the

validity of religious experience,

of the .scientific

and philosophical

criticism

on the need and interprethe

tation of that experience.

The

followers of Spencer, the

humanists,
Platonists,

the

supernaturalists

(with

reservations),

and the religious naturalists would all agree on these points. At the same time, the group of thinkers just mentioned all represent an attitude toward historical religion which rests on the conviction that, although religious experience is valid and worthful, the ideas which religion has developed are in the main false. Most of this group, for instance, would reject the conception of God as a conscious

mind

as well as the idea of personal

immortality;

if

the
that

supernaturalists hold to these ideas, they
constitutes a radical break with the

do
in

so in a

way

way

which the

ideas

have been developed and interpreted in most of the world's
religions.

The

point of view of those

who

hold to a radical break

is opposed by that of the large and theologians who think that truth is more likely to be found by a critical development of the values and beliefs discovered by historical religions than it is by a repudiation of them. If we wish to label these groups for convenience, we may call the former revolutionary 29 and the latter evolutionary. The revolutionary group wishes to do away entirely with the idea of God as a con30 scious spirit. The evolutionary group wishes to unify,

with the history of religion
of philosophers

number

29

While

this

use of the

than

to biological evolution,

word evolutionary refers to historical and logical almost all members of the evolutionary group are

rather
theists

who

accept biological evolution. 30 In Bishop William Montgomery

Brown

there

is

a perfect

example

of the revo-

lutionary

method

carried out to a rcdnctio

ad absardum.

Once

a bishop of the

156

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
and extend the
spiritual

criticize, rethink,

and
31

personalistic

idea of God.

A

revolutionary thinker tends to discredit an

evolutionary one as a victim of traditionalism.

An

evolu-

tionary one tends to discredit a revolutionary as a victim of
abstract theorizing without regard to historical realities or
intellectual coherence.

The movement
of

of religious thought, then,

may be

regarded

as a dialectical advance.

Religion

starts

with an affirmation

some
is

faith

:

for example,

God

is

a conscious person,

whose

will

revealed to us.

This starting point

may

be called the
of protest

thesis of naive

dogmatism.

The extreme form
is

against the thesis (within the realm of religion)
tion of the revolutionary
false
antithesis.

the asseris

Since dogmatism

method, so runs the
its

antithesis,

we

should break entirely

with

assertion that

try to build

up

a

God is a conscious person, and should new view of religion with some substitute
32

for a personal

God.
is

Wherever

a thesis

and an

antithesis

appear, there
Protestant Episcopal

a

tendency for
in

a synthesis to arise.

The

Church

good standing, he

lost his faith in

conscious personal

God

in the

sky" and was found guilty of heresy.

what he calls "a He became a

Marxian Communist. The unusual aspect of his case lies in the fact that he continued, as an atheist who rejected all of the teachings of Christianity except its moral idealism, to desire still to be known as a bishop and retained belief in the Christian doctrines, interpreted as symbols of Communist ideas. See his Communism and Christianism (Galion, Ohio: The Bradford-Brown Educational Company, n.d.), on the title page of which is the motto, "Banish Gods from the Skies and Capitalists from the Earth." Revolutionary as is Bishop Brown, his continuation of Christian symbolism shows that a shred of evolution survives the holocaust of the most devastating revolution. In opposition to Bishop Brown's revolutionary intention is Edwyn Bevan's rejection of a new religion unconnected with the past religious experiences. See his GifFord Lectures for 1933 and 1934 (SAB, 69). 31 Edwyn Bevan calls it "the method of anthropological intimidation" (SAB, 51) when thinkers that we have called "revolutionary" try to refute theism because
of
its

relations to origins in primitive thought.
all

The method

of anthropological

intimidation rejects
32

development whatever.

revolutionary, since

There may be some question regarding our classification of Barthianism as But in some respects Barthit still holds to a personal God. ianism is substantially agnostic about God and his Word, and in all respects its method breaks with predominant methods of religious thought; it is therefore trulv a revolutionary idea, whether true or false.

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
three

J

57

do not always or usually appear in strict one-two-three order, but no matter when they arise, their relations assume
In the case of religious conceptions

the dialectical form.
of

God, the synthesis seems to be an evolutionary treatment of those conceptions, which carries religion beyond the thesis of mere dogmatism, yet takes its affirmations into account; considers the most revolutionary objections and innovations; and then builds up a revised and undogmatic form of the thesis, modified and criticized. If the danger of the thesis is its narrow dogmatism, and of the antithesis is its destructiveness, the danger of the synthesis is that of smug dogmatism. This danger can be avoided only by refusing to treat any form of synthesis as the last word of
thought.

Time

alone will reveal

all

the implications of the

two points

of view to the thought of generations to come.

An Evolutionary Conception: God as Conscious § 13. Mind, Immanent Both in Nature and in Values (Theism)
Modern theism
Theists define
is

a

typical

evolutionary

conception.

God

as a conscious

mind
and

(spirit or

person),

immanent both
pretation of
of religion,

in physical nature

in value experiences.

This evolutionary group

from an interthe facts of history, psychology, and sociology and from the monotheism which most of the
starts its reflections

higher religions

have developed

as

their

central

faith.

Evolutionary thinkers are mostly

theists.

Theism is a special form of monotheism, as distinguished from other forms, such as pantheism and deism. Pantheists
(§6) hold that the one divine
spirit

includes

all

that there
is

is;

man and

nature are alike parts of

God and
is

there

nothing

in the universe except

God; God

is

completely immanent in

everything.

Deists (§9) hold that there
is

one divine

spirit,

but that
to

this spirit

completely external both to nature and
created the world, he

man; even though God may have

i

58

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
has nothing directly to do with
it.

now

He
and

is

an "absentee
transcendent.

God,"
deism

wholly

"other,"

supernatural

Theism may be regarded

as a synthesis of

pantheism and

(as well as of the traditional

and the revolutionary).

Theists are evolutionary thinkers
pantheists

and

all deists

the belief

who share with many in God as one supreme,

personal

God

is

They agree with immanent in nature, but
spirit.

pantheists in holding that

they deny that spiritually

imperfect

human
as

persons could without contradiction be
of a spiritually

regarded

parts
reject

perfect

divine

person.

Hence they
holding that

pantheism.

They

agree with deists in

God

is

other than the world of

human

persons,

and some of them grant that perhaps God
complete and rigid externality.
that

is

other than nais

ture; but they reject the idea that this transcendence

a

Thus they

reject deism.
is

Theists in general agree that although
all
is

God
is

more than

revealed in physical nature, he
all

present (im-

manent) within
those events
are

physical events to such a degree that
of
his

expressions

power and
is

control.

Theists also hold that God's personality
intrinsic values

expressed in the

which

are his

norms and purposes and which
Theists
differ

man

is

gradually

discovering.

about

the
it,

definition of nature

and the mode of God's
certainty

relation to

the importance of
torical

many
the

of the special insights of the his-

knowledge

and logical basis of our God, and the extent to which future investigations may alter or enlarge our conception of God. They agree in the repudiation of finality and dogmatism, in the critical interpretation of religious experience, and in the use of scientific and philosophical methods. In view of widereligions,

of

spread popular misunderstanding,

it

is

perhaps necessary to

state explicitly that the theistic belief in

God

as a spiritual

personality excludes entirely the idea that the divine personality has a biological

organism of any kind.

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
Some few
illustrations of the theistic
this exposition.

159

view will conclude

The German philosopher Lotze and the American Bowne are conspicuous for their combination of
theism with an
fluenced by
idealistic

view of nature.
like

Personalists in-

them include men

A. C. Knudson, R. T.

Flewelling, G. A. Wilson, P. A. Bertocci, and

But
is

there are also

not idealistic
It

many others. many theists whose metaphysics of nature 35 and who call themselves religious realists.
limits of reasonable
list

would be impossible within the
It

space to undertake to
theists.

the ideas of even the chief

modern

lecturers

would be necessary to include most of the GifTord and a large number of the best-known philosophers

and theologians.
arbitrarily, the

We

select for brief

mention, somewhat

views of

five distinguished

modern

theists,

Bergson,

Eddington,

Boodin, Hocking,

and Whitehead,
sides.

men who

have approached theism from different

Henri Bergson (1859) has devoted most of his life to psychological and biological philosophy. His view of God which had been close to that of religious naturalism, has in his most recent work, The Two Sources of Morality

and Religion

(193.2, tr. 1935),

arrived at a theistic position.

He defines God as love, and explicitly derives this definition from the experience of the mystics, distinguishing his view from pantheism by his insistence on freedom and on God's
creation of

human

beings as creators (see

p. 243).

Eddington (1882), best known as an astronomer and philosopher of physics, is an evolutionary theist in our special sense, in that his view of God is a scientific and philosophical interpretation of the Friends' religious
A.
S.

experience.

from the empirical fact that mind which we have direct experience, and he concludes that the unseen world is the world of a spiritual, personal God. 34
starts
is

He

or personal spirit

the only reality of

33 See

Macintosh (ed.), RR.

3*

See Eddington,

SUW,

47, 81, 82.

160

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD

John Elof Boodin (1869), whose philosophical development has led through many phases of pragmatism and
realism, develops theism cautiously.

Acutely conscious

as

and the limitations of our knowledge, he is nevertheless aware that mere skepticism is sterile. He approaches God through our experiences of order, life, intelligence, beauty, and goodness, and is driven to conclude that these values point to God 35 as personality and creative love.
is

Boodin

of the complexity of experience

A

more

idealistic theist,
is

with a certain pantheistic trend

in his thought,

whose treatment
cally

William Ernest Hocking (1873), problem has been the characteristievolutionary one described by the title of his great book,
of the of

The Meaning
of religion,

God

in

Human

Experience.

In the course

of this analysis of the intellectual and mystical foundations

Hocking

defines

God

as

"an Other Mind, an
as

individual Subject, wholly active" and he regards any other

conception of divine unity than the personal

"thinner and

weaker."

36

we mention Alfred North Whitehead (1861whose extraordinary contributions to mathematical ), logic, to philosophy of physics, and to social philosophy fit
Finally,

him

to

approach philosophy of religion objectively.

White-

head's doctrine of

doubt that

from simple; but there is no Whitehead's view is theistic and evolutionary, for
is

God

far

he holds
is

that, in

regard to God's "consequent nature,"

God
is

conscious and good, manifesting a
3T

wisdom which
Whitehead
is

"a

tender care that nothing be

lost."

clearly

not a pantheist, nor
the world, he saves
s5 See

is

he a creationist;
38

God

"does not create

it."

Boodin,

GOD,

46.

The

student will find

it

fruitful to consult this

book

carefully. 36 Hocking,
37 38 Ibid., 526.

MGHE,

332, 334.

Whitehead, PR, 524-525.

CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
In bringing this chapter to a close,

161

we cannot

avoid being

impressed by the variety of opinion about God.

Yet what
insight

was

said at the start

is

now

seen

more
is

clearly to be true; that

in all the variety of opinion there

one

common

about experience coming to expression, namely, that the
object to
service
is

which

all

religions

a divine source

have directed their worship and and _ponseEYer of values. The exdefinitions of

amination of so
spective.

many

different

God

will

prepare us to evaluate the faith of religion in a larger per-

Bibliographical

Note

background, see Burtt, TRP(i939). IGRP(i9i7), treats the great ideas of God since Hume. Royce, CG(i902), and Wieman, Macintosh, and Otto, ITG(i932), are famous debates which bring out differing views of God. Various conceptions are treated critically and ably in Bowne, THE(i902), and in Lyman, MTR(i933), 229-346. A simple and clear elementary treatment is found in Harkness, CRT (1929), Chap. VIII. The variety of current views of God is brought out in popular essays by various writers in Newton, MIG(i926), and in the more critical treatments of Brightman, PG(i93o), and Wieman and Meland, APR(i936). The indifference of many cultivated persons to God is well illustrated by Fadiman (ed.), 16(1939), in which some of the most famous men of letters and science show that they have not given a serious thought to God for years; the reader will decide for himself what this proves, but to some it may suggest the New Yorker's "Depart-

For a good

historical

Pringle-Pattison,

ment

of Utter Confusion."

—

SIX

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
Introductory

HAPTER V

has presented samples of the more

important conceptions of God, both revolutionary

and evolutionary. Those ideas were called revolutionary which presuppose rejection either of the predominant form which the idea of God has taken
that of a conscious, personal being (for example,

humanism)

—or
God
rest

else of the

predominant conception of the relation of

to the
;

world of

human

experience (for example, Barthi-

anism)

these views were called revolutionary because they

on a break with the main historical development of religion. Other ideas were called evolutionary because they presuppose that the history of religion is a development in
the gradual experimental discovery of religious truths; the

evolutionary conceptions
that all religious value
is

grow out

of the empirical

fact

personal experience, as well as out
is

of the historic faith that the object of worship

a cosmic

experiencer and continuer of ideal values.
tionary views are not profitable to examine.
It is,

Static or reac-

however, self-evident

to a thoughtful

mind

that

no
In-

classification or labeling of ideas

can decide their truth.

minds may be impressed by the idea mentioned first, or by the one mentioned last; those whose emotions are suffused with a pleasant glow by the word revolution or the word evolution will suppose that the problem of God has been solved by these labels, "like a skeleton with tickets
attentive
162

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
stuck
all

163

over

1

it."

Philosophy
of

of

religion
is

as

well

as

philosophy of science or philosophy of art
rational

based on a

interpretation

experience,
if it is

not

on acceptable

emotions.

Religious emotion,

worthy, must conform
based
a

to truth, not truth to emotion.

Nevertheless, to say that philosophy of religion

is

on
is

a rational interpretation of experience

is

far

from

com-

plete or exact statement of
a

word

that has

how God is known." Experience had so many conflicting meanings that
its

at least

one philosopher has proposed to abolish
as

use;

and

the

word "known,"

applied to God, or to any object

whatever, opens the floodgates of epistemological theorizing.
In order to clarify the problem which confronts us, pre-

liminary definitions are essential.

The problem

of this chapter

is

to define

and evaluate prois

posed ways of knowing God.
guished from experience.
is

Knowledge
as

to be distin-

Experience

used in this book

a

word
at

that refers to the
is

immediate data of consciousness;
is

whatever

present in consciousness
is

said to be experienced;
is

what

any given time

not present in consciousness
experiences
his

not

experienced.

The
it

individual

experience,

lives his consciousness.

double reference;
sciousness as

refers, as
it; it

But every actual experience has a we have said, to our own conalso refers to objects not identical
If
I

Contrast the psychological method of James's Varieties of Religious Experience

(1902) with the more Kantian method of the two books entitled The Validity of Religious Experience by A. C. Knudson (1937) and F. E. England (1938) and these in turn with W. E. Hocking's more Hegelian The Meaning of God in Human
Experience (1912), or with D. E. Trueblood's mystical The Trustworthiness of Religious Experience (1939).

164

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
I

that

was

in

changing relations

to objects not

my

conscious-

ness (the house, outdoors, the operation of the heating system
in the house
It is

and of the seasonal climate outside the house). most confusing to use the same word for two (or more)

very different meanings.
to

Hence we

shall use "experience"
It

mean

only the field of consciousness.
3

will apply to

any

and every item
such

in that field, not to a set of privileged items,

as sensations or perceptions.
it

John Dewey,
consciousness.
this
4

is

true, stretches the

term experience

to

include every event in nature which affects or

may

affect

Language

affords

Dewey

a certain basis for

usage
it

when we
as

say that the water experienced a change

when

froze.

But Dewey's treatment of experiencing and

undergoing

simplification, as

synonyms tends to create the illusion of if in some way direct consciousness and changes in objects become similar and well-ordered when these different meanings are reduced to one word. Perhaps consciousness and objects are of the same order of being; but it takes more than one word to prove it. While Dewey, of course, has taken far more than one word, his readers would be s'pared needless confusion if different words were used for different meanings. After all, there can be no doubt that immediate experience and the system of nature

Whenever we speak of nature, or of a we always mean more than and other than anything we can possibly experience. Even if a part
are not identical.
single natural object,

of a natural object can be immediately experienced,

which
so ex-

the writer believes to be impossible,

the part that

is

3 Traditional empiricism (Hume's) should really be called sensationalism, on account of Hume's doctrine of impressions. 4 See Dewey's Carus Lectures, Experience and Nature (1925), and his Logic

(1938). 5 See Brightman, ITP, 67-98, for a defense of epistemological dualism, the
theory that objects

known

are always

numerically distinct from

the

idea

that

knows them;

consult Lovejoy,

RAD,

for a later

and much

fuller

treatment of the

same point of view. Holt (ed.), NR, is a standard attack on epistemological dualism and defense of the monistic position.

;

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
perienced
is

165

so small a part of the actual object (one's

own

body, for example, or a coin, or even an orange that one
eats)

most of the object the surfaces not visible or and all of the interior of the object, including its atomic structure lies beyond the range of direct experience. The fact is, then, that our experience always refers beyond
that

—

tangible

—

itself,

sometimes

to other possible experiences,

sometimes to
to experi-

experiences which are only ideally possible (such as our perceptions of the other side of the

moon), sometimes

ences which are absolutely inaccessible (such as the past or
the experience of other

minds than our own), and some-

times to conceivable objects which are defined as not being experience at
all

experience of the nature or essence present in experience
given; the object referred to
lies

beyond, and can be reached

only by rational interpretation of or inference from what
is

given in experience.

When we
"imaginary")

refer to

any supposed object (be
setting

it

"real" or
called
it

we

are

up what may be

a

knowledge-claim.
refers to

Every experience, whatever
6

else

may
that
it

be, always includes a

knowledge-claim (or judgment) which

something beyond the experience.
is

When

reference
called, as

a spontaneous assertion of consciousness,
said, a
is

is

we have

knowledge-claim (Plato's opinion)
its

when

that reference

well-grounded in an examination of
logical relations, then
to
it is

relevant evidence

and of

called

knowledge.

Knowledge should not be taken
absolute certainty.

be synony-1
is

mous with
6

In fact,

all

knowledge

See P. E. Wheelwright,
in the

Element

"The Category of Self-Transcendence as an Essential Concept of Personality," in Brightman (ed.), P6IC, 121-128.

1

66

W A YSOF KNOWING GOD

(more or less well-grounded) that the referent of the knowledge is as described. Certainty is a word that can
belief

apply, in the absolute logical sense, only to present experi-

ence while

it is

present.
as

It is
it

never so certain that
that

we know
conscious.

any object correctly
at all;

is

we

are

now

Psychological or emotional certitude, of course, has no limits

one

may

feel

emotionally certain of astrology or of

theism or of atheism or of Hitlerism without either logical
or empirical right to that certainty.

To summarize
;

the postulates implied in these definitions:

we experience only our present consciousness (whatever it may be) of this and this alone we are certain, as a Cartesian foundation of knowledge. Our experience always includes
knowledge-claims, that
is,

reference to supposed objects bethings, events, or gods.

yond us

—human persons,

Knowl-

edge-claims are never perfectly well-grounded; but
consistency supports belief in a knowledge-claim,

when
call

a

reasonable degree of coherent empirical evidence and logical

we
all

it

knowledge.
edge
is

No

knowledge

is

absolutely certain;

knowl-

subject to revision.

As
is

Saint Paul once said,

"We

know

in part."

The

very essence of knowledge, whether
to recognize
its

in science or in philosophy,

own incomharmony
with the

pleteness

and to provide a method for further investigation.
is

The

so-called "pride of reason"
spirit of

therefore out of

with the nature and

knowledge.
as

When we

are concerned,

in this chapter,

knowledge of God, it is especially important to make clear from the start that there are special reasons for emphasizing the incompleteness and the (logical) uncertainty of any If God is what theism takes possible knowledge of God. him to be, the cosmic source of all nature and of all value experience, then complete and adequate knowledge of God would mean complete knowledge of all the evidence for
7
i

Cor. 13:9.

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
belief both in nature

167

and

understanding of their

and also complete rational relations. Such knowledge is bein values

yond

us,

although the lack of logical certainty does not pre-

vent sincere devotion and even assurance about the religious
referent.

On

the other hand, this logical incompleteness and un-

certainty

may

not properly be used as closing the door to

investigation of evidence.

uncertainty attaches to
tions of physics.

A similar incompleteness and knowledge, even to the proposiThe frequency with which new experiall

ments lead
physicist

to

changes in theory should
finality.

from dogmatic
Indeed,

suffice to keep any Yet no physicist thinks

of ceasing to experiment for the reason that his
is

knowledge
of
his

incomplete.
is

the

very

incompleteness

knowledge
So
it is

the greatest possible spur to further research.

in philosophy of religion.

Dogmatic

finality

is

un-

we have not reached the end of religious knowledge leads the inquiring mind to further investigation. The conviction of nearly all good men through the ages, that ideal values are as truly objective
attainable, but the very fact that
as are sense perceptions,

have asserted that they possessed an immediately certain experience of God.
tical

In Chapter

II, §

9/ some account of mys-

experience has already been given.
the traits of that experience, the most important for
of

Of
the

knowledge

God

is

the one called by William James

its

noetic quality.

The

mystic believes that he
certain
fact, all
tell

an immediate and absolutely knowledge may be ineffable; in
rience
is

knows God in experience. The
immediate expe-

ineffable.
is,

No

definition can

what the

quality
tries to

of purple color
tell

or the odor of a rose; one

who

of such matters can only

hope that
So
is

his

words

will be

addressed to one

who

has had a similar experience.
it

Other-

wise the words are meaningless.
of

with experience

God.

If

one has experienced the presence of God, and

the relation of the soul to

cannot describe the mystical
to a person

God called the unio mystica, one moment in concepts intelligible
presence.

who has never felt the divine Almost every human being has at some
lost in

time or other

felt

some overwhelming beauty or goodness or truth so immediate and convincing as to cause him to say: This is the high point of my life, yet it is more
himself
the presence of

than that;

it is

the presence of something truly real that
I

is

higher than the highest

could have thought of

if

the real

had not given itself to me. It is, in a word, the very presence of God. Whatever language one uses to describe the experience and whether one names the name of God or not,
9

The

devotional
this

and psychological
connection.

literature

there

sulted

again in

In connection

cited may well be conwith the present chapter read

Montague, WK, 54-68, and Knudson, VRE, 56-97. For treatment of mysticism see the chapter on the subject in Russell, RS.
especially

a

hostile

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
there
is

169

no doubt

that the experience itself

is

one that

men

in every civilization

and every stage of religion and
it

irreligion

have enjoyed.
ecstatic,

When

is

emotionally intense, prolonged,
is

and dominant, the subject
hard head

a great mystic; but the

most

practical secularist has his mystical

moments, however

valiantly his

may
is

resist

them.

The
It

mystical
be,

moment
is,

an intuitive apprehension of God.

may

and often

preceded by a prolonged discipline

of a moral, aesthetic, intellectual, or ascetic nature, but
it

comes,

all

these preparatory exercises disappear.

when They are

like

The
but

when the structure is completed. may prepare for the divine coming as he pleases, when the mystical moment arrives, God is there. God
props knocked away
mystic

and the soul are one. "Rejoice with me, for I have become God." William James says that the theoretical outcome of mys10 ticism is optimism and monism. To these should be added immediacy. In order to understand mysepistemological ticism as a way of knowing God, something must be said
about each of these three points, beginning with the
last

named.
Mysticism,
first

of

all,

is

an assertion of epistemological
itself is

immediacy.

Mystics declare that experience

knowl-

God himself is actually present in the soul, so that what is human and what is divine in the experience are indivisibly one and indistinguishable. From the standedge and that
point of theory of knowledge, this
ical

monism,
difficult,

in

very

is a form of epistemologwhich idea and object are both God. It is however, to take this claim literally. At any

rate, there are

apparently actual differences in the mystical

experiences of Hindus, Friends, and Catholic mystics.

And
God

even

if

these differences are ignored,

it

could not be said by

the most extreme mystic that his supposed union with
10 James,

VRE,

416.

iyo

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
him an
identity with all of God's
It is

gave

knowledge, power,
to say

and

character.

more modest and more probable
false in so far as
it

that the mystic's knowledge-claim, although exaggerated in

many

respects,

and

asserts identity

with

the divine, furnishes nevertheless important data regarding
the objective source of value.

No

one can deny that mystic
to

experiences occur, and
aspects of the real so in

it

is

hard

deny that they

disclose

which

are not products of

human

will

and

some

sense are objective.

as

What aspects of the real are discovered? William James, we saw, thought that the discoveries are optimism and
Both of these words,
alas,

monism.
neither of
tical

are ambiguous,
all

and

them

is

fully consistent
If

with

the facts of mys-

optimism means that evil is only illusion and that everything real is entirely and beautifully good, then the mysticism of some forms of Hinduism and of Christian Science is optimistic. But when one contemplates the awe-inspiring and tragic factors in the mysticism of Jacob Boehme or William Blake or Rudolf Otto, one sees that the word optimism is a pale description of the mystical apprehension of the depths of reality. So, too, with monism. If monism means that everything real is one being, and that there is only one spirit, God, of whom we are but parts, then again some forms of Indian mysticism and some mystical occidental pantheism is monistic. But Ramanuja was a theexperience.
istic

Indian mystic,

who met

popular Indian theories of the
a proof,'

dissolution of personality into the All with the very sensible

problem:
tell also

"When

you

say, 'Consciousness itself

is

whose consciousness, and for whom. If it is not a " proof of something and for someone, it is no proof at all." In other words, consciousness is always personal, and one
person cannot be another.
11 Translated

The

unity of personality stands
J.

from R. Otto, Siddanta des Ramanuja (Tubingen:

C. B. Mohr,

1923). 55-

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
in the

171

way

of a cosmic

also for the Friends,
tics.

monism, not only for Ramanuja, but and for large numbers of theistic mys-

no truth in James's statement that mysticism, It as a way of knowing, leads to optimism and monism? is not necessary by any means to reject them entirely merely because they are stated in exaggerated form. If optimism be taken in a less extreme sense, and be defined as the view which holds that value is objective and dominant in the universe, then mysticism is always and everywhere optiIs

there then

mistic.

And

if

but be taken to

monism be not identified with pantheism, mean the view that a unitary spirit of good

is always and everywhere monistic. To summarize this survey of mysticism as a way of knowing God, we may say: (1) that mystical experience is immediate, but cannot be called immediate experience of God; it is rather an immediate experience of the self which may be taken as a sign of the reality of God, provided philosoph-

controls the universe, then mysticism

ical

thought finds

this idea tenable;

(2) that mysticism
all

is

not necessarily optimistic in the sense of denying
or evil, but
is

tragedy
of

optimistic as a present experience
evil;

the

dominance of good over
sarily monistic in
is

and (3) that it is not necesthe sense of pantheism or absolutism, but
intuition
if

monistic in the sense of being "a vision of the world's

unity."

Thus mystic

philosophy can ignore; even
clear that

furnishes data which no no actual values were ex-

perienced by the mystic (a supposition impossible to defend),
at least
it is

he proposes possible hypotheses about

which are close to the pantheistic and theistic conceptions of God. Philosophers have to explore all possible hypotheses, and would be guilty of false sentimentalism
the cosmos
if
is

they failed to investigate any hypothesis merely because
in

it

some

sense optimistic

and monistic.

172

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
§ 2.

Revelation
seen, lay claim to

The

mystics, as

we have

an immediate

knowledge of God within the human soul. start from a view which postulates, and carries to an extreme, the idea

They

of the nearness of

God

to

man — a

view often called the

immanence of God. Other religious groups have started from very different postulates. They have usually assumed
that the

God

that religion worships

and seeks

to

know

is

en-

tirely external to

man,

that

is,

transcendent.

They

distrust

human experience. They might agree with our proposition that man experiences only himself, and then infer from this that man by his own powers can never discover or experience God.
the powers of

human

reason and the range of

God, according
Catholics

to

these

thinkers

— Calvinists,

Barthians,

Mohammedans, Mormons,

Christian Scientists, and

some

— would remain forever unknown, or forever only

an unverified guess, an entity whose plans and nature were hidden from us, unless he revealed himself. He is "totally other" (totaliter aliter) than man; man's nature and experience contain no clue to him unless and until God speaks.

What he

speaks

is

called "revelation," or

"The Word."

The

sacred scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, as well as of Christianity and Islam, are believed by the

adherents of each of these religions to contain a revelation
of

God which human

reason and experience could never

have invented, one "free from the contamination of
hypotheses" (as Christian Scientists put
Belief in revelation
as
is
12

human

it).

not always held in so extreme a form
it

has just been stated; but
12

has been and
is

is

held in that
No
On
one
the

The

Christian Scientists' view of revelation

especially interesting.

holds to the divine immanence more strongly than they do, and they might be expected to accept mysticism combined with some form of rationalism.
contrary, they hold to a rigidly authoritarian revelation.

This

may
fall

perhaps be
in the

explained by their doctrine of mortal mind.

Human

hypotheses

realm

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
form God.
so widely as to merit examination as a
It is

173

way

of

knowing

open to the obvious objection as to how one may choose from among conflicting revelation-claims. The radical believer in revelation sees that if

reason

is

allowed to

creep in to discriminate one revelation-claim from another,

then reason becomes the criterion of truth and revelation
loses its

supreme authority.

Hence

it is

usually said that the

soul

is

led by the Divine Spirit to accept the true revelation,
act of supernatural faith.

by an

tion have alienated

men

like

The extremes of this posiJohn Dewey so completely from
have abandoned an evolution-

traditional religion that they

ary for a revolutionary view of religion.
the view are most tenacious of
it,

Those who hold whether Christians or non-

13

Christians, Protestants or Catholics.

The men who
on revelation insist on the
ligion, are

at

present are most prominent in dwelling

as the true

way

of

knowing God, and

therefore

superiority of theology to philosophy of re-

Karl Barth

(whom we
Tillich.

have already mentioned),

Emil Brunner, and Paul
ficial

These
is

men

are

dogmatists.

They

are scholars of distinction

no superand men

for

whom

religious experience

a reality.

They cannot

be dismissed lightly, whatever our predispositions

may

be.

One
tion
is

of the favorite expressions of Barth regarding revelathat
it

comes "senkrecht von oben" (perpendicularly from above). That means, it is no outgrowth of human striving and no discovery of God within man; it is a gift from God himself. Emil Brunner expresses the same idea when he declares that Christian faith differs fundamentally from all philosophy. Philosophy rests on "the complex of grounds and consequences developed by natural reason,"
of mortal mind; and divine mind is indeed Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages
totally other
is

than

it.

Etienne Gilson's

a beautiful exposition of views held

by Christian philosophers during the mediaeval period. summarized in Baillie and Martin, Revelation. 13 See Dewey, CF, beginning on p. 1.

Recent conceptions are

174

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
this

whereas Christian faith recognizes "that

complex has
is

been broken into" by revelation.

14

Paul Tillich

decidedly

more philosophical than
the
first

Brunner; yet on page of his treatment of philosophy of religion he
either Barth or

says:

philosophy of religion does not consider the revelation-claim it misses its object and doesn't deal with real religion. If it recognizes the revelation-claim, it becomes theology. Revelation is the breaking-through of the unconditioned into the
If

of religion,

.

.

.

world of the conditioned. 15

Such statements constitute a direct challenge to philosophical modes of thought and appear to create an absolute antithesis: either revelation or reason. It is on account of this
radical opposition to reason

and experience that we

classed

the Barthian view

among

the revolutionary conceptions of
spite of the apparently antiraits

God

in

Chapter V.

Yet in

tional character of this

view and

extreme supernaturalism,
asserts the obligation

the statement of Tillich leaves at least one point of contact

with philosophical thought

when he

of philosophy to consider revelation-claims.

Religious

men

and
is,

women have

always believed that through their religious

experiences they gained supernatural values and truths, that
values and truths

which

are not given in the order of our

sense perceptions.

If

sense experience be called natural

and

experience of ideal values be called supernatural, then religion
is

indeed supernatural revelation.

Every experience
Yet

that arises with a claim to reveal divine values ought to be

impartially surveyed by reason and
it

its

claims appraised.

would be

fatal to rational integrity to

grant that the
it

mind

should trust the Divine Spirit to guide

to accept the right

revelation in the absence of reasons or evidence; for then
14 Brunner, PR, 13. 15 Tillich in Dessoir,

a very different treatment, see

PEB, 769, 770. Translated by the present Montague, WK, 39-53.

writer.

For

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
there

175

would be no way whatever
of the devil.

of telling the voice of

God

from the voice

it is viewed by thinkers of various religions and standpoints, it is useful to distinguish between two views of the subject, which correspond only roughly to the difference between what are

In order to clarify the problem of revelation as

popularly called fundamentalism and modernism.

two views may be

called the

dogmatic or
16

intellectualistic

These and

the teleological or dynamic.

The word dogmatic has here no invidious connotation. does not mean that its proponents are irrational beings who refuse to think and who make dogmatic assertions
It

without reasons.

It

means

rather that they

believe

the

communication of supernatural and infallible truths or dogmas. These truths are usually thought of as propositions which the natural reason could never arrive at by reflection on ordinary experience, but which in no way contradict natural reason or experience. Christian believers in the dogmatic view of revelation point tcTthe doctrines of the Incarnation and of the Trinity as examples of such revelation; Mohammedans, to a mass of
essence of revelation to consist in the

concrete information about the future
doctrine of
tian

life;

Hindus,

t

o a

many

incarnations as contrasted with the Chris-

dogma

of a single

and unique Incarnation of God
it is

in

Jesus Christ.

To any

sincere believer

perhaps painful

to see the revelation-claims of the other religions placed

on

a level

with those of his

own

religion, but

it

is

a fact that

equal claims are

made by
dogmas.

conflicting religions to the pos-

session of revealed

This dogmatic view of revelait

tion
as

is

also called intellectualistic because

treats revelation
is,

being essentially the communication of ideas, that
content,

in-

tellectual

from the divine mind
It
is

to

selected

and

receptive
16 See

human
Way

minds.

doubtless this aspect of the
II

"The

of Revelation," Chap.

of Brightman,

FG.

176

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD

view which once led Professor Wilhelm Herrmann to remark in conversation that "orthodoxy is too rationalistic." By a curious freak of thought, however, Karl Barth, reputedly the most orthodox Protestant theologian of the present
time, does not accept the intellectualistic theory of revelation.

According

to

him, no

human

thought can ever grasp

the content of the divine revelation; not
majestic Will of

dogma, but the
is

God

is

revealed,
is

and

it

not rationally

apprehended, but rather
teleological or
this

felt as

an overwhelming power.
is

In contrast with the dogmatic view, as was said,

the

dynamic theory of revelation. According to view, which is in some form accepted by most "liberal"
is

or modernistic theists, the essence of revelation

not the

communication of
of

infallible truths; instead

it is

the guidance

human
it

life to

higher levels by divine power.
belief that,

To

be more

exact,

means the

although

God

does not impart

dogmatic eternal truths

to

men's minds in some supernatural
acts

on human history that men are given impulses which lead them to move toward God. Those who hold this theory think in terms of spiritual stimulus and response, and so of divine-human cooperation,
way, yet the divine purpose so
rather than in terms of divinely revealed creeds.
It is

clear

why this view is called dynamic. It is not that there is no "dynamic power" in dogmatism; there undoubtedly is. But the dynamic view makes revelation an experience of the power and active purpose of God rather than an experience of God's knowledge. According to the teleologists (or "dynamists," as we may call them), knowledge must always be built up and tested by reason on the basis of data of experience. Experience, on this view, includes many factors which are revelatory in the sense of being purposed by God
'

in order to lead

men

to

higher values; yet

all

of these factors
is

must be interpreted by reason, and the interpretation man thinking, not divine dogma.

hu-

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
of truth

177

For the dogmatist, revelation means the communication from God to man. If two men lay claim to having received revelation and the revelation of one contradicts that of the other, only one of the two "revelations" can be true. Only he who possesses the true dogma knows God; and
only he possesses
learned
it it

to

whom God

has revealed

it

or

who

has

from some fortunate

recipient of revelation.
is

For

the dynamist, however, revelation

the communicating of

power and purpose, rather than truth. On this premise, if two men have contradictory ideas about God one a revolutionary humanist and the other an evolutionary theist both may be recipients of revelation and both may be moving in

—

—

the direction of the divine purpose.

If

God's purpose

is

the

development of a cooperative society of honest and good men, it is not essential to that purpose that these men agree
in all points.
It is

essential only that they

be truth-lovers

and
It

lovers of ideal value.
is

dynamic view attaches more imporDynamists would for the most part endorse John Locke's statement in Book IV of his famous Essay. "He that takes away reason to make way for revelation," says Locke (xix, 4), "puts out the light of both." The dynamic view, however,
clear that the

tance to reason in revelation than does the dogmatic.

does not imply that the use of reason leads to perfect intel-

God. It implies only, as Kant said in 17 Johann Caspar Lavater, that "God necessarily has some supplementation of our defects hidden in the depths of his counsels, which we may humbly trust, if only we do
lectual insight about his letter to
as

much
it

as

is

in our power."

Thus

revelation for the dy-

namist requires man's rational response to divine impulses,
but
does not require or yield infallible information.

A
17

further distinction needs to be
is

made

if

thought about

revelation

to be clarified,

namely, that between so-called

Dated April 28, 1775.

178

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
General revelation
is

"general" and "special" revelation.
that

which is accessible under normal conditions at all times to all men. Special revelation, as the word indicates, is that which occurs only under special circumstances or at special times. There is no particular difficulty in recognizing both types of revelation, if there is any revelation at all. There are recurring and constantly accessible forms of truth about moral and spiritual values. But every person has also been aware of special moments of insight and illumination, special stirrings of his being toward God. The difficulty arises when it comes to identifying and evaluating the normative
special revelations.
It is at this

point, fully as

much

as in the

cleavage between dogmatic and dynamic views, that the

between fundamentalists and modernists appears. The fundamentalist (in any religion) will tend to restrict special
rift

revelation to the holy scriptures of his

own

faith; while the

modernist will tend to find various degrees of special revelation in all sincere forms of faith.

The

affiliation of

Karl

Barth

with orthodoxy against modernism appears most
first

sharply here; for he regards the special revelation of the

century of our era as being exclusively normative for
In view of the variety of opinion about revelation,
still

us.

may we

say that

it is

a

way

of

answer that question for

knowing God ? The reader must himself. The dogmatist will tell
knowlthat

him

that special revelation has imparted infallible

edge about

God

so important
it.

and true that
is

all

general revela-

tion pales before

The dynamist
all

will tell

him
is

no

revelation, general or special,

a source of final or infallible a source of

knowledge, yet that

revelatory experience
of

knowledge about the purpose
continuation of values.
§ 3.

God

for the creation

and

Faith
the point of view of
revelation,

A

third

way

of

knowing God from

religion, in addition to

immediate experience and

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
is

179

faith.

18

It

seems evident that

God

is

not

known

either

by pure reason (formal logic, mathematics) or by sense experience; or if "pure" reason and sense data enter into

knowledge

of

God, they certainly do not

yield such

knowl-

edge apart from experience of values. God is believed to be the supreme value, at once the source and goal of human

Our knowledge of values is very different from our knowledge of logic or of sense data, so different that many 19 writers hold that we cannot rightly speak of knowledge of
values.

values at

all.

Yet religious experients in

all

ages have felt

assurance of a religious knowledge through faith.
then,
is

What,

faith

?

The word
been used in
to

faith, or its equivalents in

other languages, has
It

at least three different senses.

has been taken

mean:

(1) acceptance of revelation; (2) a gift of

God; and

(3) trust or obedience.

The predominant conception
has been that
(1)

in the universal religions

faith

is

acceptance of revelation, in spite of

the almost complete absence of the idea

from both the Old

According to W. Morgan in ERE, this conception first appeared definitely in Christianity in the book of Acts. "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31) seems to mean: Accept the revelation of God in Christ and salvation is assured. Whether or not this was the original meaning of the words, they soon were thus interpreted. The regula fidei (rule of faith) of the early Church, resting on the dogmatic view of revelation, set forth the minimum essential propositions of revealed dogma. This view of faith is intellectualistic; for it, faith is, as Saint Augustine said, cum assen20 sione cogitate (cognition with assent). In this sense, faith is really not a distinct way of knowing God. Its difference
Testament and the teachings of
Jesus.
18 See the articles in

ERE on

"Faith" and "Bhakti Marga."
See Ayer, LTL.
,

19
20

Such

as logical positivists.

De

praedestinatione sanctorum

5.

i8o

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
of

from other kinds
revelation

knowledge
It
is

consists only of
intellectual

its

object,

the content of revelation.

knowledge of

accompanied by
first

belief.

In contrast to this

view, which prevails not only in the

Roman

Catholic Church, but also

among many

Protestants,

as well as

among Mohammedans and some
is

sects of

Bud-

dhists, there

The

first

the conception of (2) faith as a gift of God. view regards man as active in accepting revelation;

the second regards
tianity, this

him

as passive in receiving

it.

In Chris-

conception goes back to Saint Paul,

who

wrote

of gifts of the Spirit,

and then treated

faith,

hope, and love

as "the greater gifts" (1 Cor. 12:31, 13:13).

modern Barthians regard
the gift of
to

faith in this light.
:

and "By grace have
Calvinists

ye been saved through faith

God" (Eph.
is

2:8).

and that not of yourselves, it is This point of view carried

an extreme leads

to the Calvinistic doctrine of predestina-

tion, that faith

given only to those

who

are foreordained

to be elect.
If faith is a

supernatural
it is

gift,

without

human

activity or

responsibility,

a

unique and miraculous way of knowing,
of life utterly

in a

new dimension
with
if
it,

conflicts

reason must be wrong.
first

beyond reason. If reason The same conclu-

sion follows

the

definition of faith be accepted.

Hu-

man God

reason would not be competent to criticize a gift of
or a divine revelation.
It could only appropriate and These two views of faith, then, between faith and reason.

apply the one or the other.
create the

famous

cleft

dience.

There remains the conception of (3) faith as trust or obeW. Morgan, in the article on "Faith" in ERE,
is,

writes that "the notion of trust

indeed, vital for religion,
Perre-

but

it

has played no part in theological controversy."
this
is

haps

true because trust
so reasonable that

is
it

at

once so necessary to

ligion

and

cannot well be challenged.
it is

Trust presupposes something trustworthy; thus

a value-

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
word.
Religiously,
it

181

means confident

loyalty to
is

what

is

believed to be of true value.

Obedience likewise
is

a value-

word;

it

presupposes an authority that

acknowledged

as justified in

means

action

demanding obedience. Religious obedience in accordance with what is believed to be the
Both trust and obedience are usually toward God, and both are attitudes
is

supreme authority.
thought of
of will.

as directed

According to
the religious

this

conception of faith, there

no reason why
as a valid

man

should regard any experience
unless that experience
ideal value.

revelation-claim or should treat any experience as a super-

natural gift of

God

commends
function

itself

to his reason as

embodying

Then, and then
its
is

only, does the attitude of faith set in;

and

not

to discover occult truths inaccessible to ordinary intelligence,

but rather to act on the highest available truths about value.
Faith in this sense
is

very close to what Kant meant by the
it is

practical reason; in spirit

also akin to the scientific

(and
fails.

pragmatic) method
Faith, therefore,
contrary, without

—the
is

method
no

of trying loyally the best
if

prospective experiment, and turning to a better
in
conflict

that

with reason.

On

the

its

experimental method reason has no

adequate object; and without rational checks, faith has no

no verification. Faith thus needs and reason faith. Pascal's passionate cry that "the heart has reasons which the head does not know," taken literally, is a demand for a dual personality and for a contradictory "truth." It is the duty of reason to examine all the evidence. All religious evidence, whether of revelation or of gifts of God or of the heart, must pass under the scrutiny of reason in order to test whether it introduces
consistency and undergoes
reason,

The advantage of the third, and most truly religious, conception of faith is that it directs purpose toward religious values without committing itself
chaos or order into experience.

1

82

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
any one
intellectual definition of religion or of

to

God

as

alone valid.
tellectus.

In short,
the

it

dispenses with the sacrificium in-

same time, as a principle of action, it is to be distinguished from the Platonic "faith" (tuctk;) which is an "affection occurring in the soul" below reason and understanding, yet above mere conjecture." Faith is not to be
1

At

defined in contrast either to reason or to certainty, but rather
in contrast to unfaith, or disloyalty to the highest
values.

known
to

be a
shall
I

Thus faith as trust and obedience appears also form of knowledge in the famous "pragmatic" saying

of

the Johannine Jesus: "If any

man

willeth to
it is

know

of the teaching,

whether

of

do his will, he God, or whether

speak of myself" (Jn. 7:17).

Similar conceptions occur in

Marga of Hinduism and Buddhism. By way of summary, it may be said that faith is taken to be a way of knowing God in three senses: (1) as an acknowledgment of revelation; (2) as a supernatural gift of God to man; and (3) as trust in and obedience to the highest values. In the first two senses, faith is the apprehension of
the Bhakti
a unique supernatural content.

In the third sense,
it

it

is

a

method

rather than a content;

may

be called the experi-

mental method taken whole-heartedly and applied to values.
§
4.

A

Priori Principles

ways of knowing God which we have thus far discussed are immediate experience, revelation, and faith. These ways have in common the trait of being empirical in the special sense of assuming that some particular experience, a divine moment, is to be taken as bringing man into touch with God, and so as being normative for the whole life. Yet our examination of the knowledge-

The

three typical

claims of these experiences has
authority;
at least, if

left

us unconvinced of their

they have authority in their

own

right,

21 Plato, Rep.

511DE.

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
it

183

is

one which reason cannot affirm without an investiga-

which the extreme mystic, the dogmatic revelaand the authoritarian fideist, rebels. Yet we found in all these ways of knowing God something amenable to reason. All immediate experience must be acknowledged and interpreted by reason. The dynamic view of revelation stands in the light of a rational perspective, and faith as trust and obedience refers to ideals acknowledged by reason. Reason thus becomes a way of knowing God what Royce calls a "source of religious insight." Reason is, however, no simple entity. In fact, there are several different conceptions of what reason is, two of which are of prime importance for religion. The first (first to dominate religious thought) may be called the Aristotelian22 Kantian. The second is the Platonic-Hegelian. Those who hold to the Aristotelian-Kantian view define reason "Rational knowledge and knowlas a priori knowledge. edge a priori are one and the same." By an a priori principle is meant a principle which is necessary if a specific
tion against
tionist,

—

:

class of experiences in a

given universe of discourse

is

to be

possible.

It

is

not absolutely necessary that any particular
is

universe of discourse must be; there
that this
if

no

logical necessity

world or that number must be; but if either is, or any realm of ordered being is, there are certain principles
it

without which
22

could not be

at all.

Deny
to

unity,

and there
be in-

The

reader

may

be somewhat surprised by this grouping.
is

He may

clined to say that Plato

closer to

Kant than

Hegel, and Aristotle closer to

to Kant. This is true in many respects. But the terms in the text up with reference to logical method. Aristotle's logic was the basis of Kant's critical method; both were predominantly based on class terms, their analysis and necessary deductions from them. Kant's categories were concepts Begriffe) and Kant was better able to deal with the analysis of the mind into

Hegel than

are built

I

,

separate faculties than with

its

fundamental unity.

Plato and Hegel, on the other

hand, were essentially synoptic philosophers, with a primary interest in wholeness and the totality of mind, experience, and reality. See above, Chap. I, § i.
23 Kant's

Theory of Ethics
97.

(tr.

Abbott), 261.

Quoted by Knudson

in

Wilm

(ed.),

SPT,

1

84

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
no numbers.

is no world. no morality. Since each a priori is thus relative to a special realm and lacks apodictic certainty, philosophers like Bowne and Knudson speak of it

are

Deny

space or time, and there
is

Deny

obligation and there

as

an

ideal.

A

cognitive ideal or a priori
a
24

is

thought of
ideal
this

as
is

presupposed by science;

religious

(or ethical)

presupposed by religion.

Thinkers

who

hold

view

regard both science and religion as "autonomously valid."
In contrast to this Aristotelian-Kantian view
tonic-Hegelian.
a priori principle
is

the Pla-

Representatives of this view deny that any
is

to be regarded as

more than

relatively

autonomous.
gard
as the

They do not

define reason as consisting of
of

a priori principles,
it

much
true

less

autonomous ones; they
25

re-

one principle of coherence, synopsis, or

totality.

Hegel's saying,

"The
is

is

the whole,"
it,

is

the key to this

conception of reason.
a priori principle

For

the only truly
all

autonomous

the ideal of taking

realms of ex-

perience into account in their systematic interrelations and
in their totality. Just

now we

are especially interested in the Aristotelian-

Kantian group of thinkers, as we have called them. They hold that religious knowledge rests on a priori principles,

and hence they are called religious apriorists. The leading member of this group in America is the learned and astute theologian, Albert C. Knudson. He holds that the religious a priori connotes a "native religious capacity" of the mind, which is "original and underivable" and hence autono20 mous. This theory treats religion as being grounded in the nature of the mind in essentially the same way as are 27 science, morality, and art. Knudson's form of the view
-* 25

Knudson, DG, 81-82. Phenomenology of Mind,
the

81.

26 See

previous

discussion

of

apriorism

in

Chap.

I,

§

2.

The

phrases

quoted are from Knudson, VRE, 166.
27 Ibid., 174.

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
rests, as

185

we saw

in

Chapter

I,

on a psychological rather than

a rationalistic or logical interpretation of the a priori.

The chapter in which Knudson expounds his view is headed "Self-Verification. " This expression appears to imply that religion is independently true, regardless of other experiences and interests. It carries its own verification with Knudson cites Bowne's well-known statement: it.
Whatever the mind demands for the satisfaction of its subjective and tendencies may be assumed as real in default of
28

interests

positive disproof.

Religious
vigor,

apriorism

has

a

sturdy

simplicity,
it

rational

and

religious confidence

which make
and

attractive to

many minds.
unsatisfactory.

Yet members of the Platonic-Hegelian group,
its

while sympathizing with
It

clarity

force, regard

it

as

seems to them
call
it

artificially

simple and
all,

overanalytic.

Hegel would
experience
is

abstract.

After

no

phase of

human

fundamentally autonomous or

independent of other phases.

Bowne's willingness

to as-

sume

the mind's

demands
is

as real "in default of positive dis-

proof" seems to be too lax a standard.
of contradiction
far

The mere

absence

from

sufficient a basis for believing
sets

any claim that the mind
proves nothing.
course,
is

up.
is

Absence of disproof
required.

Presence of proof

Proof, of

not to be identified with what

Matthew Arnold
is

satirized as "rigor
sible.

and vigor."

Absolute proof

impos-

Such probable proof as we can attain and must defundamental convictions requires that no psychological claim, however native and inherent it may be in the mind, can be accepted as true until its coherence, its systematic connection with a rational view of the rest of experience, has been established. Bowne and Knudson appear to find an autonomy in religion which rightly be-

mand

for our

28

Bowne, THE,

18; cited in

Knudson, VRE, 176.

186

longs to no

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD experience — to and to moral
scientific

as little

as to religious experience.

All

autonomy

is

limited by the
limited by the

claims of the whole, just as

states' rights are

Federal Constitution and private rights by the principle of

eminent domain.

The mind
faith

is

a

whole and truth

is

a whole.

Religious

must be

justified, if at all,

not by innateness nor by

historical universality, but rather

by such coherent and har-

monious
If,

relations to all other aspects of experience as serve
its

to establish

right to an integral place in the realm of truth.
is

then, an a priori religious principle

proposed,

it

must be regarded critically, as Knudson points out in his chapter. We go further. Perhaps it is no more than a
rationalization

there be a

— a name for the soul's intense God and a friendly universe. Such
if

desire that

a principle,

indeed, must be

religion

is

true; but

it

affords

no

suffi-

cient insight into the

fundamental question:

Do we know

God?
§ 5.

Action

In opposition to the rationalists

who

lay claim to

knowing

God through
assert that the

a priori principles are the pragmatists

who

only

way

to

know God
since
its

is

through

action.

The pragmatic movement, 29
birth
in
1878,

somewhat
most

abortive

has become one of the

influential
It

philosophical currents in contemporary America.
29

has

formulation was by Charles S. Peirce in his article, "How to Make our Ideas Clear," Pop. Sci. Monthly, 12(1878), 286—302 (see his Collected Papers, edited by Hartshorne and Weiss, 248—271). He coined the term pragmatism, and gave as his first definition of its maxim
in

Pragmatism originated

America.

Its first

might conceivably have practical bearings, Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object" (258). William James, F. C. S. Schiller, and John Dewey have been the most famous thinkers to develop this point of view. For a survey of pragmatism, see Rogers, EAP, 359-410. For criticism see Brightman, ITP, 50-58; and note the bibliography, ibid., 368-369: see also Montague, WK, 131-172.
the formula: "Consider
effects, that

what

we

conceive the object of our conception to have.

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
its

187

not been confined to academic philosophy, but has exerted

on the American system of public education, on the arts, on literature, on social theory, and on religion. The interest of our present investigation centers not on the historical debates about pragmatism but on the use of the pragmatic method as a means of knowing God. Taking Peirce's rule of identifying an object with the effects that
influence

we

conceive the object to have, then

we should

identify

God, or a cathedral, with the effects which we conceive God, or a cathedral, to have. Thus a cathedral is an object which produces certain sense impressions, which arouses aesthetic reactions, and which leads the believer into a mood of worship. God is an object which arouses faith, unity of life, and loyalty to ideals. These statements are true, whether a cathedral or God is ''real" or "imaginary." No one, to the writer's knowledge, ever has questioned that the experienced practical effects of an object are facts which ought to be taken into account. It is true that a pure apriorist, who relies on universal a priori principles rather than on particular empirical facts for his knowledge of God, would not attach primary importance to the effects of the idea of God on human action. Those effects, he would say, are possible only if faith or reason establishes a priori the real being of God. But he would grant that the effects are real and are to be given whatever weight
should be given to empirical evidence.
If

there

is

no difference about the duty

of taking practical

consequences into account,

why

does not everyone accept
of
as

pragmatism? pragmatism

Is

not action a
the

way

knowing?
the

Is

not

essentially

same

experimental

method ?
acting,

do

to

How do we ever find out anything except by by seeing what we can do to objects and what objects us ? Does not religion itself essentially rest on an ap3C

30 See the discussion of the operational

method

in

Bridgman, LMP.

188

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
God
does not

peal to action?
activities

mean

a

theorem: he means

which we

call

goodness, truth, beauty, and wor-

who are seeking to know all that can be known about God must observe the kind of action that follows from our conception of God. Much argument is
ship.

Surely, those

empty because

it

ignores the plain empirical

mandate

to

consult experience.

Nevertheless, difficulties arise
of of

when
is,

the pragmatic
to

knowing God
knowing.
in

is

taken, as

it

often

be the only

way way

biguities

These difficulties arise partly from the ampragmatism. If action is the road to truth,
all

does any and

action give us truth?

Surely not everyis

thing that could be done in a laboratory

much
true
is

less

is

everything that

is

knowledge

of

God.

Again,

if

an experiment; done in life fruitful for pragmatism means that the

we may well ask the old question, "What does pragmatism mean by practical ?" If we consult Schiller, he tells us that whatever satisfies human needs is practical. But needs is a slippery word, made more slippery if stretched to cover all of human nature. If, however, we consult Dewey, we are guided away from Schiller's humanthe practical,

ism to a more biological view; the practical means whatever
tends to adjust our organism to
cisive action
is

its

environment.
is

The

de-

thus organic.

But adjust

another vague
as satisfactory

word

here.

What

one person would regard

adjustment, another would not.
Difficulties also arise

from the vagueness

of

pragmatism
if

about objectivity.

Much

that pragmatists say sounds as

our ways of experimenting actually
objects;

and we are

make our truth and warned by Professor Dewey against
31

accepting any "antecedent reality."

At the same

time,

pragmatists do assume a real, objective world of nature and
a society
31 See

which can make "public"

verifications.

The

for-

Dewey, QC, passim.

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD

189

mer tendency points toward a purely subjective God which we make as we go; the latter tends also to exclude an objective God from its postulates, by assuming naturalism On the as the theoretical framework for pragmatism. hand, Schiller's humanism is in some danger of other
giving everyone just the kind of objective

God he

wants.

Pragmatism thus oscillates between too subjective and too objective a view of God. Without retracing our admission that action is a source of knowledge about God, we now repeat that action cannot be the only way of knowing because, by its very nature, it
is

not thought, but

is

only a datum for thought.

The

goals

of action, the kinds of action,

and the instruments

of action

must

all

be defined and evaluated by thought.

Thought
neither

cannot survive as a

set of abstract, a priori categories;

can action survive as "blind empirical groping" (to quote

Kant), and no one really supposes that
perience
is

it

can.

Actual ex-

mere thought. It is concrete, living union of form and content. Pragmatism is right in condemning abstract intellectualism; its critics are equally right in condemning abstract empiricism. Concrete empiricism must include not only action and
less

never mere action,

much

experiment, but also rational interpretation of them.
§ 6.

Coherence

The

criticism of a priori principles led to a distinction

between the Aristotelian-Kantian and the Platonic-Hegelian
conceptions of reason.

The

criticism of pragmatic action

led to insight into the need of supplementing the practical

by the

rational.

We
way
us

are

now

ready to consider reason, or

coherence, as a
First of
all,

of

let

knowing God. make clear exactly what
that
is,

is

meant by

coherence in
as a

this connection.

We are thinking of coherence
as a

"way

of

knowing" God,

way

of discovering

ipo

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
testing truth about

and

God.

Readers of philosophy are

familiar with a "coherence theory"
absolutistic metaphysics.

which

is

a

form

of

With

this

we

are not

now

con-

cerned.
truth.

Our
Also

interest

is

rather in coherence as a criterion of

it

needs to be
as

made

clear that

we

are not dealIt

ing with coherence
is

merely theoretical consistency.

certain that theories

may

be self-consistent, yet irrelevant
facts.

to

and incoherent with experienced

The coherence
not enough for

that

we

are talking about must, of course, exclude theoretical
is

inconsistency, but consistency of theories
it.

In addition to consistency

among our

theories,

coherence

requires

two other attributes: first, consistency between our theories and the facts of experience, and secondly, systematic relatedness which discovers connections, laws, and purposes. Consistency is mere absence of contradiction; coherence is
presence of relation.

As way

applied to religion, coherence
of

is

a

much more
would

rigorous
It
is

knowing than mere

consistency

be.

fairly easy to see that there

can be no logical inconsistency

between observed facts and the belief that there is a God; God would be one more fact, and facts cannot be inconsistent.
It is

not so easy to see that there
facts

is

coherent relation

between the observed
belief in
is
is

and

belief in

God.
is

To
of

say, for

example, that the theory of evolution

consistent with

God, because evolution
but
is it

is

God's

way

working
It

a perfectly logical statement, free
self-consistent;

from
Is it

contradiction.

coherent?

possible to show,

between the supposed goodness of God and the structure of the evolutionary facts? The Schoolmen of the Middle Ages were on the whole Formal logic was their great satisfied with consistency.
in detail, a relation

instrument. When modern science arose, it created a problem for traditional belief in God partly because it used methods and arrived at results inconsistent with the faith.

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
But
it

191

constituted an even greater challenge to theism beits

cause

results

appeared to be quite irrelevant to the sacred
has the

doctrines.

What

Copernican astronomy or the

law of falling bodies to do with any conception of God, This seeming lack especially with the God of revelation?
of relation, this irrelevancy, this incoherence,
lies
all,

at
if

the

very heart of the problem of God.
is

For, after

there

if

God who is to be known in any way by man, and that God is to be of any importance to man and to human
a
it

values, then

must be shown not merely
contradiction with
that the idea of
is

that the idea

God is free from known facts, but also
of
related to the facts

itself
is

and with
organically

God

and
is

needed

in order to interpret

coherently.
facts

If

there

not positive

them harmony between the

diction will leave us cold,

and the conception of God, mere absence of contraand rightly so. To assert God is
it

to assert cosmic purpose; but

is

futile to

assert

it

with

formal correctness unless the facts can be connected in detail

with the asserted purpose.
is

Thus, belief in a

theistic

God

an assertion of a metaphysically coherent universe,

a universe organized

by rational purpose for the realization
such a God, coherent reason
suited
to

of rational values.
If

we
of

are to

know

is

the
fact,

way

knowing most

the
all

problem.
the

In

coherence must be the arbiter of

other ways of

knowing.
set

Each immediate
with our

religious

experience must be

in

relation

total
is

range of experience and
not trustworthy.

thought; untested experience
tion-claims

Revela-

must all be judged by their coherence with our whole view of life. Faith must be seen in relation to its results, its functions, and its relations to actual experience.

A

priori principles cannot even be

known

to

be a priori
other

unless they are necessary for a coherent universe of dis-

course;

and any such universe must be related

to

i

92

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD

and criticized with regard to its coherence. Action offers data which are mere brute facts or unsolved problems until they are interpreted by coherent rational thought and are related to the whole of our conscious reAccordingly, reason concrete and inclusively sources. empirical, not merely abstract and formal is the supreme source of religious insight, the supreme way of knowing 32 about God, whether he is, or whether he is not. It may appear to some readers that the present discussion
possible universes

—

—

is

a plea for the

Platonic-Hegelian against the Aristotelian-

Kantian view of reason; that is, for coherence against con33 sistency. That this is not true follows from the very
nature of each.

Consistency does not
satisfied

demand

coherence;

hence Kant could be
but

with his perfectly consistent,

almost perfectly incoherent, theory of phenomenal mechanism and noumenal freedom, or with his similar sharp division of the mind into sensibility, understanding, and reason, or with his conflict between speculative and
practical

reason.

We

repeat:

although

consistency

does

not

demand

coherence, coherence presupposes, requires, and

includes consistency.

To

define reason as coherence

is

not

to exclude consistency, but to to
it

demand

it,

and then

to

add

and wholeness. To other readers it may seem that the present appeal to coherence is a defection from the empirical method that was avowed in the first chapter. This would also be a
relations, structure,

misapprehension.
attention to
all

To demand

coherence

is

to

demand

full

the facts of experience, to neglect none, in

short, to "save the appearances," as Simplicius said in his
32 See Royce, SRI, 79-116,

on "The

Office of the Reason."
this point.

Also, Flewelling,

RIF.

Gilson,

RRMA,

should again be consulted at

33 It should be noted that both in Aristotle

and

in

of the coherence criterion.

The

contrasted pairs of

intended as absolutely complete characterizations of
scriptions of the

Kant there are clear traces names in the text are not the men, but as just de-

main

logical interest of each.

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
commentary on
Aristotle's

193

De
It

coelo.
is

Coherence

is

no

re-

pudiation of empiricism.

simply an insistence that

empiricism must be complete, well-ordered, clearly defined,

and rationally interpreted. There are at least three stages in any coherent philosophy

knowing process. The first stage is that of gathering The facts include the prescientific data of experience, and also their scientific formulation. Thus in knowing about God, all the facts of religious experience would be considered, plus the investigation of them by
of the
all

the facts.

history, psychology,

and sociology;

further,

all

the facts
to

of nature

and of the natural sciences would have
of value

be

included and related to the more specifically religious

facts.

Thus our experiences
and the
this
first

facts

about their

and our experiences of nature relations would be collected in
stage
is

stage.

The second

the construction of

some working hypothesis to interpret the facts; hypotheses both regarding methods and regarding meanings would
have
to

be

tried.

The

third stage

is

the verification
is

(or

falsification)

of the hypotheses,

which

carried

out in

philosophy by relating the data to the hypotheses and considering whether the hypotheses include
all

of the data,

and whether they organize
the hypothesis that

all

of the data coherently.

Thus
being

God

lives as

an exalted

human

on Mount Olympus is easily refuted by climbing Mount Olympus and finding neither God nor heaven there. The more abstruse hypothesis (of Epicurus) that the gods live
in the interstellar spaces
is

refuted both by

its

failure to
also

explain the data

we have

in actual experience,
it;

and

by
its

the lack of any specific data to support

in short,

by

incoherence with experience.
ception of

The

simpler humanistic conall

God

is

consistent with

the data, but fails to

offer a coherent interpretation of

them.

i94

WAYS OF KNOWING GOD
§
7.

Knowing
religious

as Certain or as Heuristic

it was made knowledge could not claim absolute theoretical certainty; nor is religious knowledge unique among knowledges in this respect. As long as men are men, two facts will doubtless remain true. First, alterna-

In the introductory portion of this chapter

clear that

tive hypotheses for the interpretation of the facts will al-

ways be

possible;

and secondly, new experiences

will conis

stantly be emerging.

Thus

the

work

of thought

never

done and revision and further growth are always
pect.

in pros-

Yet

it

is

the faith of religion that in

all

the changes

that

may come,

certain constants of value will abide.

This

on philosophical grounds as a dogma, but it may be entertained as a working hypothesis used in the discovery and testing of truth about the Continuer of Value in the universe.
faith can never be asserted

From
ical

a logical standpoint, then, Groos's theory of theoretis

relativism

unconquerable.

Final

proof,

complete

demonstration, and logical certainty can never be reached

by human
to
"it
is

on any matter whatever. No knowing leads absolute certainty. But as Henri Poincare has written,
skill

a mistake to believe that the love of truth

is

indis-

tinguishable
tical

from the

love of certainty."

3i

Groos's practhat our

absolutism

may
of

be interpreted to
if

mean

most
not

coherent hypotheses are,
at

not finally demonstrated truths,
truth.

least

means

moving toward
fulfill

They

are

dogmatic revelation, but they
of leading

the purposive function

man

in the direction of the revealer of truth.

They
it

are therefore not certain, but they are heuristic.
is

Such,

at least,
is

the faith

on which progress

in science rests;
is

and

not incoherent to suppose that a similar faith

valid

in the

realm of religious knowledge.
SM,
7.

34 Poincare,

WAYSOFKNOWINGGOD
Bibliographical

195.

Note

On the general problem of types of knowledge, Boodin, TR(ic.ii), and Montague, WK(i925), are useful manuals. Macintosh, PK(iqi5), is a standard work; Lovejoy's RAD(i93o) is
more
critical.

with logical fundamentals. views in Bixler (ed.), NRE(i937). Special problems are dealt with in Bennett, DRK(i93i), a brilliant essay. Knudson, VRE(i937), and England, VRE(i'938),
are discussions of the a priori view.

lem dogmatic believers on the one hand, and dogmatic unbelievers on the other. Dogmatic believers are so thoroughly committed to their faith that it seems to them blasphemous to treat that faith as problematic;

—

who
a

are

try to

prove the eternal

we puny human beings, to doubt or even God? The refusal to make belief

in

God

Job's "comforters."

problem has its classical religious expression in Zophar the Naamathite asks the epic

doubt but ye are the people, shall die with you; But I have understanding as well as you. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to reason with God. But ye are forgers of lies.
196

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
Here, then, a radical conflict

IN

GOD

197

among

religious

believers

emerges; some think
tional belief,
it.

it

is

irreligious to challenge convenit

and others think

irreligious not to challenge
still

Unfortunately, the party of Job's comforters

out-

numbers the party of Job. Similarly, among disbelievers in God, the dogmatists outnumber the critical inquirers. Not merely do Communists reject God without giving a
single serious

thought to the evidence, but
likewise.

many
These

scientific
scientists

writers

1

and philosophers do

and philosophers, not unlike

Job's so-called comforters, are

convinced that they cannot by searching find out God.

Hence they do not
it

search.

But, whereas the ancient comcritics

forters held searching to
to

be wicked, the modern

hold

be useless.

Such

scientific

and philosophical dogma-

tism

—in

the sense of atheism without investigation of the

evidence for theism

—

is

contrary to the spirit of both science
it

and philosophy.
disbelief in

Yet

is

noteworthy that most current

God seems to have arisen from neglect of the problem and from preoccupation with interests to which
belief in

God

is

not directly relevant, such as descriptive
logic,

science,
tions,

mathematics, symbolic
of

historical

investiga2

epistemology, and other specialized investigations.

The problem

God

is

not raised until one either under-

takes to construct a coherent metaphysical view

which

shall

include an interpretation of value experience, or at least
confronts the facts of religion and
true meaning.
tries

to discover their

who
1

has tried

Almost without exception, every philosopher to do either of these things has thought
dis-

See Brightman, Art. (1933^.
the

belief based

Freudianism is a conspicuous example of on examination of limited, selected evidence.
complete
irrelevance
of
belief in

2 The assumption of Mr. Walter Lippmann*s

God
of his

underlies

A

Preface to Morals.

He
it

does not undertake to refute
is

theism; he assumes atheistic

humanism because

the

mood

day (sec

PM, 133-134).
Part

It is

a day well described by the Aristophanic quotation heading

"Whirl is king." Yet a thinker should look considerably beyond the I, humanity of 1929 for an understanding of the most truly human values.

198

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF

IN

GOD

problem of God: in recent times, such men as Samuel Alexander, Henri Bergson, William James, Josiah Royce, B. P. Bowne, W. E. Hocking, John Dewey, George Santayana, and Bertrand Russell have all found
seriously about the
it

necessary to think about
last

God

in order to arrive at clarity.
first six.

But the

three differ

from the

Dewey, Santa-

yana, and Russell have given

much

less

thought to weigh-

ing the evidence for and against the belief in
structed with relatively
just as

God

than

they have to fitting that belief into a system that was conlittle

regard to the evidence.

It

is

unsound method
as
it is

to start in

with a predetermined
faith.

doubt

to start in

with a predetermined
desires.

Phi-

losophy of religion must be an investigation of experience,

not a rationalization of predetermined

The absence

from philosophical
rives
at

literature of

any monograph which exbelief in

amines the evidence for and against
an
atheistic

God

3

and

ar-

conclusion

is

evidence that

modern

doubt has not yet really wrestled with the problem of God.

For one trying to think philosophically, belief in God accordingly a problem that must be faced. The scientist does not need to reflect on God; the philosopher must. To think about God is to think about a Continuer of Values a source of the possibility and the perpetuation of
is

—

value experience.

Anyone who

thinks persistently about
its

value experience must inquire about

validity,

its

source,

and

its

destiny.
at

These questions cannot be
of value.

fully considered

without

least

taking into account the possibility of a

superhuman source and continuer
together
perience.

The

very fact
al-

of value experience, then, raises the

problem of God,
religious

apart

from

desires

or

specifically

ex-

The
3
J.

conflicting conceptions of
E. McTaggart's
it

God (Chapter V)
comes nearest
to

force

M.

Some Dogmas

of Religion
is

being such

a monograph, but

is

not exhaustive and

the exception which proves the rule.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
the

IN

GOD

199

mind

to reject

some or

all

of the contradictory beliefs

that are or have been held.

The

various ways of
beliefs

knowing
unless
all

(Chapter VI) would lead to a clash of
of the

ways of knowing are criticized and brought into harmony by the principle of coherence; and even with
coherence as unifying criterion,
are possible (that
particular,
is,

many

different hypotheses

conceivable) and require testing.

In

there are mutually exclusive hypotheses about

the relations between values
flict

and physical

reality.

The

con-

among

these hypotheses appears

as

the problem of

the relation of

God

to nature, or of ideals to existence (in

German, the problem of Sollen and Sein). If we turn from this conflict of theories to the empirical
evidence underlying
all

theory,

we

find the root of the

war of ideas. There are, of course, persons who would deny this, for some say that there is no evidence for God. But such persons are using the word evidence in an esoteric sense; they may mean by it a particular kind of evidence
that
is

absolutely conclusive
is

to

them.

The

patent fact,
/

however,

from lack
are too

problem of belief in God arises not but from superabundance of it. Philosophy of religion is a detective story in which there
that the

of evidence,

many

clues.

On

the one hand, every value, every

sign of order

and

rationality,

and every experience of purthe other hand, every disirrationality,

pose

is

evidence for God.

On

value, every sign of disorder

and

and every
Neither

purposeless experience

is

evidence against God.

body of evidence is conclusive when taken by itself. Such theism as sweeps aside the evidence against God with a magnificent gesture and such atheism as concentrates on the negative and belittles or ignores the positive evidence are sisters under the skin twin dogmatists, allied in re-

—

jecting the ideal of coherent reason.

The one unescapable
is,

decree of reason

—unescapable,

that

by

all

who

choose

200

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
think

IN

GOD

to

—

is

that

all

the evidence of experience shall be

faced and weighed in the scales of a logical interpretation
of experience as a whole.

The terms

of this decree con-

demn with
matic
of

equal severity the dogmatic theist and the dog-

atheist.

For some reason,

in the presence of the idea

God thought

occasionally enters a state of suspended

animation

—not

merely in an Angelus Temple, but even

in a Hall of Philosophy.

The

idea of

God

is

indeed over-

whelming, but from its overwhelming character neither its truth nor its falsity may justly be inferred. All that may logically be inferred is the obligation to examine the evidence on both sides with impartiality. Physicists may operate as if Space-Time were ultimate; religious believers may operate Philosophers can rely on no as if values were ultimate. selected evidence, for whatever purpose it may have been selected. Philosophers must view every part in the light of the whole, and must therefore treat every belief, including belief in God, as a problem. The conflict of evidence makes
it

imperative for thought to wrestle with experience in

order to gain truth.
Is

The
if

question must be faced radically:
of

there a God, and

so,

what kind?

Is

there a Con-

tinuer of Value, a "Determiner of Destiny"?
objective or subjective in nature?
§
2.

Are

ideals

How

Could the Problem Be Solved?

If

the results of Chapter
start that

VI

are

borne in mind,

it

will

be clear from the

cal solution to the

no absolute and final philosophiproblem of God will be found. The
is

notion of absolute finality in thought
to experimental science, but
spirit of religious faith
is

not only abhorrent

also out of

harmony with

the

and with the

ideal of philosophical

coherence.
all

Scientists

who

apply experimental method hold

theories lightly, eager to

abandon any speculation

that

does not accord with empirical fact and searching for truth

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
regardless of prior
faith

IN

GOD

201

commitments. Religious believers who in God must necessarily believe that have genuine the divine truth and reality are incomparably superior to any theory man can hold; and the history of theology confirms the poet's insight that "our little systems have their
day."
perfect

Philosophers

who

profess

loyalty

to

the

ideal

of

coherence of all thought and experience have imposed on themselves an infinite task that can never reach a neat and final completion; the dialectic of thought and the realities of experience drive the thinker inexorably on toward endless intellectual growth. Science,
plainly
religion,

and philosophy thus unite
not be reached.
certainty
is

in the verdict that a

final solution will

If final intellectual

thus

known

to be unattain-

able by anyone

who
is

respects the spirit of science or religion

or philosophy,

the whole

enterprise

of thought

vain,

and must
clusion

man

give

up in discouragement?
of court
alike.

Such a conscientist,

would be laughed out losopher, and religious believer
investigator seeks
is

by

phi-

What

the scientific

not a stopping place in his thought,

but a stepping-stone to more truth.
seeks
is

What

the philosopher

not the possession of

all truth,

but a unification of
in-

such truth as he has and a method of criticizing and
creasing
it.

To

give

up would be
requires
is

essentially

irreligious.
his*"

What
"we

the religious

explanation of
see

man God is

not the certainty that

absolutely correct; he

through a glass darkly,"

knows that and he knows that his

very faith in the experience and the increase of religious
values requires frequent reinterpretation of his thought about

God.

What
as

is

the history of religion but a series of such,,
?
is

reinterpretations

As long
contrast

man

truly

human,

so long the all but infinite

ence, religion,

between present insight and absolute truth in sciand philosophy will never break the human

202

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
or cause

IN

GOD

spirit
life

man
is

to cease thinking.

in every area
is

beset with uncertainty.

Man knows that his He also knows
is

that his life

a constant

ebb and flow; the ebb

toward

chaos and barbarism, the flow toward unity, civilization,

and

truth.

Our

inquiries into belief in

penetrate to the end of infinity, but they
direct life

God will never may serve to

from chaos and contradiction toward integration and coherence. One who demands more than this from
philosophy of religion
or later; but one
is

doomed

to disillusionment sooner

who
is

finds this has

found

a

method

of per-

sonal growth that
§ 3.

superior to any unchangeable

dogma.

Is

There no God at all?
is

The

question whether there are any atheists

frequently

debated.

An
it

atheist
is

is

one

who

denies belief in God.

Yet

found that atheists deny some particular God (which perhaps they were taught at their mother's knee), while granting that there must be some superhuman Continuer and Source of Value. Again,
frequently

kind of belief in

many

atheists

direct

their

denial

not

so

much

against

belief in

God

as against believers in

God;

against hypocritical against
antisocial

individuals

or

(as

in

Soviet

Russia)

churches, allied with wealth and corrupt politics and heedless of

the injustices to

atheists

which the poor are might almost be called disguised

subjected.
theists, for

Such
they

assert the validity of the very ideals of

honesty and justice

which believers in God take to be essential to a divine will. Thus the atheism most commonly met with is but a family quarrel in the religious household about the source and
continuation of value;
it is

not fundamentally irreligious.
is

Truly
there
is

irreligious

atheism
there

to

be

found only where
life.
is

complete skepticism about any value in
that
is

He
the

who

believes

nothing worth while

thoroughgoing

atheist.

For him there are no value

distinc-

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
tions at all; in the eyes of such a person,

IN

GOD
is

203

Mr. Guest
as

as

great a poet as Shakespeare,

Mr. Berlin
as

as talented a

comSt.

poser

as

Wagner, Mr. Hitler
as

just
as

Aristides,

Bartholomew's Eve

benevolent

the

Sermon on
as

the
as

Mount, ignorance
joy

as

good
better

as science,

sorrow

good

—nothing

either

or worse than
this, if
It

anything

else.

With
it

value-blindness as complete as

such there be,

is

hardly worth while to argue.
fierce

may sometimes

be

found that the
atheists

repudiation of value

which such

avow

is

an overcompensation for their failure to

achieve the values they
for their

own

ideals,

fantastically
ness,

high that

had set their hearts on, or is a veil which sometimes have been put so peering up at them has created dizzi-

and dizziness cynicism. Nevertheless, psychoanalytic no disproof of the atheistic position. Theists and atheists should appeal to inherent reasonableness rather than to reports on mental health. For every normal human being there are values. If God is properly defined as the Source and Continuer of Values, the question: Is there no God at all? is an unreal one. The
diagnosis constitutes
real question is:

What

is

God?

This

is

the question with

which

theists
is

and

atheists alike are continually struggling.

What
there

the source of values in

human

experience?

That

is

such a source

is

as certain as that there are values.

As
is,

scholastics

that
is

God

is

have said, we must distinguish between saying and saying what he is. That a source of values

certain.

What

the source of values

is,

is

uncertain.
it

Yet for both practical and theoretical purposes

is

far

more important

to explore concretely
if

what God

is

than to

stick in the barren,

undeniable, abstraction that

God

is.

§

4.

Is

God One or Many?
are,

The

earlier

stages

of religion

as

polytheistic; but the tendency of religious

we have found, development has

2o 4

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
been toward unity

IN

GOD
deities

clearly

—toward

either

monotheism or

pantheism.
in

Outcroppings of belief in nationalistic

modern Japan and Germany are so manifestly at odds with the main trend of religion as to constitute no important
evidence for polytheism.
It is,

however, not self-evident that the historical developis

ment
ward
a

of religion

a

movement toward
that
this

truth,

and

it

is

a

theoretical
error.

possibility

development

may

be

to-

Many
Is

errors have maintained themselves for

long time.

the belief in

monotheism such an
be defined)
?

error

(regardless of

how God may

There are some considerations which lead to the view is not one, but many, (i) While every observer must grant that there are processes in individuals, in society, and in nature which are teleological in the sense of leading up to a valued consummation, the
that the source of value

evidence for the unity of these value-producing processes 4 There are many axiogenetic situations in is not decisive.
experience; but
it

is

debatable whether

1

all

axiogenesis be-*

"

longs to a single unified process or plan.
like

For a thinker
in the special

Sidney Hook,

who

has

more confidence
5

sciences than

he has in philosophy, the plurality of axioge-

netic processes will be

On
and
by
or
4

the other hand, one

much more evident than their unity. who thinks that reason requires

not only the variety of sciences, but also their coherence
interrelation in philosophy, will be willing to entertain

the hypothesis that the

scientific observation

many may

axiogenetic processes revealed

be signs of a

common

cause

ground

of value.

For the sake of convenience in reference, we propose as new terms axioand axiogenetic. By axiogenesis is meant the development or production of value. That which develops or produces value is called axiogegenesis
netic.
5

The

of the

reference is to ideas expressed in discussion by Professor Hook American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division.

at

meetings

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
(2)
is

IN

GOD

205

A

second reason for questioning the unity of
in the variety of

God

to be

found

in

different civilizations;

norms actually acknowledged what passes for recreation, or
or
is

goodness, or beauty,
association in

or

truth,

holiness,

or
in

worthful
another.

one civilization

condemned

This seems to point to an irreducible variety in the sources of value; that "there are gods many and lords many" is an
empirical observation of the Christian scriptures (1 Cor. 8:5).

But

it

is

by no means certain that every difference of
reflects

opinion

among men

a

difference

in

reality;

a

moment's thought will reveal the impossible view of reality The evidence to which such an assumption would lead.
is

consistent, then, either

with

many gods
pointing
to

clearly

known
of

or^one
(3)

God

obscurely

known.
a
plurality

A
is

third

consideration

gods
forces
life

the conflict of forces in nature.
of

The

destructive

earthquake and tornado, the struggle between
conflict

and death, the

among human

instincts,

the
as

existence of planets in

which consciousness and value

we know them

are impossible, present a picture that bears

on the surface more resemblance to cosmic warfare than to the rule of one supreme axiogenetic power. This problem is so acute that we shall devote Chapters VIII, IX, and X
to a consideration of
it.

Over against these arguments for some sort of polytheism or pluralism of values, there are arguments for monotheism (in the broadest sense) or value monism. First of all, there is the unity of natural law. Value as we know it appears in a universe of law. Natural law constitutes one system;
the goal of one single equation to epitomize the entire
physical universe
able as
lates
it

is

perhaps not so fantastically unattain-

Be that as it may, natural science postuthe same laws throughout the physical universe, and
seems.
all

adds that

laws constitute a consistent system.

In such

206

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
The
parts
science
6

IN

GOD

a universe value experiences arise.

unity of natural

law suggests

a unity in source of values.

Secondly, the

interaction

of

all
if

of
is

the

universe

seems to be a necessary postulate
if

to be true or

"matter" and "mind" (whatever "matter" and "mind"
be) are to affect one another.
If

may

the universe

is

an

interacting system, one
as a fortunate

must

either regard the interaction

coincidence in the structure of independent

"building bricks of the universe" or else as a product of

some common
values are

cause.

Value

is

even more intimately conit

nected with interaction than

is

with law.

All

social

phenomena

of interaction,
is

and the

essential nature

of every intrinsic value

(as

we have found)
is,

to "coalesce"

(or interact) with other values in a totality of value experience.

The

postulate of interaction

then, another hint
a cosmic unity

that the source of value experience

is

of

some kind.
Thirdly, the very nature of value experience
to
itself

points

one coherent system.

Every value-claim must be judged

whole of value experience. Every man or his group sets up must be judged by an insight which includes, as far as possible, all value-claims and systems in their totality. This seems to leave no room for any values which are validly independent of all other values. Such autonomy as any
in the light of the ideal

system of value-claims which any

special value possesses

is

that of a state in the federal republic

and some bar Supreme Court, the experience of value disintegrates and becomes incoherent. Thus the* choice appears to lie between a pluralism which points toward skepticism about values and a monism of ideals which
of
all

values; without a federal constitution

of reason corresponding to a

welds value experience into an ideal unity.
6

If this is

the

This argument

is

made fundamental by Bowne
as well as

in his chapter

on "The Unity

of the

World Ground," THE, 44-63,

by Lotze.

a

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
nature of value experience,
it

IN

GOD

207

would seem probable
is

that the

source and continuer of such experience
§
5.

a unity.

Is

God Human Experience Only?
we found
speak
as

In Chapter

V

who sometimes
the ideal unity of

human

that there are religious humanists though God were no more than experience of value. The acknowlideal
is,

edgment

of a

supreme

of course, in a very real

and a continuer of value experience, and if no other source or continuer could be found, it would be quite legitimate to speak of this ideal as God, as humanists However, it is doubtful whether they mean to assert do. dogmatically that there is no source of value experience beyond man. What they mean, probably, is that the ideal of which we have spoken is the known and effective source of human aspiration and endeavor, and that speculation about the way in which nature is able to produce the ideal
sense a source
in

human
is

consciousness

is

futile.

The humanist's

posi-

tion

that

we should

take the gifts

of nature gladly, that

we should
and
pose.

prize and be loyal to the ideal values of personal

social life,

but that

we

should regard these values as

purely

human

rather than as an expression of cosmic pur-

Their ultimate origin
is

we cannot fathom.
he
es-

The humanist

religious in practice; highly as
still

teems religious values, he

finds their theoretical inter-

pretation too difficult a metaphysical task.

He

stands in

sharp contrast with such theists as
Descartes (1596-1650).
take their start with the ideal.

Anselm (1033-1109) and
like the

These thinkers,

humanists,

But for them the ideal has

an immediate and irrefutable metaphysical reference. Anselm held that the very highest ideal is the idea of God being than whom no greater can be conceived. Such a

—

being must

exist, for a

God

conceived as existing

is

greater

than one conceived as not existing.

Descartes added that

208

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
God
requires a real

IN

GOD
as its perfect
is

the perfect idea of
cause.

God

This movement from

idea to being

called the

ontological argument.

Humanists and most modern theists, including the Thomists, view this argument skeptically.
Its

importance

lies

in

its

testimony to the presence in

man
this

of an ideal of perfection; but to
ideal to the objective reality of

move
is

at

once from

God

to treat the ultimate

problem of existence too lightly. It may be more religious to be baffled by the problem as the humanists are than
to

underestimate

its

difficulty,

as

the proponents of the

ontological
If
it is

argument

do.

Yet both groups are arbitrary.

arbitrary to declare the

game

of thought about

God

and won with ease, it is equally arbitrary to declare lost. Play must be resumed at the end of every inning; but in thought, there is no nine-inning rule. Inquiry must go on forever. Humanists and Anselmists hold complementary dogmas, in a realm where no dogmas are in order. The ideal of perfection, shared by humanists and Anselmists alike and embodying faith in the objectivity of ideals, may well be regarded, not as the end of all thought, but as a fresh beginning. It is the supreme hypoth7 esis for all thought and experience to test. The question whether God is human experience only is not to be disposed of casually by either an affirmation or
finished

the

game

a negative gesture.
pression of one's

It

is

not a solitary idea;
life

it

is

the ex-

whole philosophy of

and

reality, the

summation and unitary climax of all one's thinking and experiencing. It is what Hocking, in The Meaning of God in Human Experience, calls our "Whole Idea." Anselm is
therefore right in holding, as he did, that the idea of
is
7

contemporary example) stands in a This God is a part of nature, being such processes and relations in nature
diametrically opposite relation to nature.

make for value, for cooperation and growth. 8 The problem of God's relation to nature is, of course, much broader than the current views of any one philosopher
as

or group of philosophers.

First of

all,

the elements of the

problem should be
this

stated.

God,

in all the discussions of

book, means primarily the Source and Continuer of

Values, and the problem of belief in

God

is

the problem
axiosoteric
9

of finding a definition of the axiogenetic
aspects of reality
all

and

which is self-consistent, consistent with and valid theories, and more coherent than any other definition. Such a definition would meet the conditions of an hypothesis that would solve the philo-

known

facts

8

See H. N. Wieman's chapter on "Approach to
Axiosoteric

God"

in

Wieman and

Horton,

GOR, 325-367.
9
is

another

new term

introduced for convenience in discussion.

As axiogenesis (adj., axiogenetic) means the production of values, axiosoteria (accent on the antepenult; adj., axiosoteric) means the "saving," that is, the preserving of values. As Source of Values, God is axiogenesis; as Continuer of
Values, he
is

axiosoteria.

aio

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
It is,

IN

GOD
In
all

sophical problem of God.
a definition of
religion,

however, easier to agree on

God

than on a definition of nature.

gods have been sources of value.
less

But there has

been far
selves
to be

agreement about the meaning of nature.

Mod-

ern scientific investigators would probably satisfy them-

with the circular definition which declares nature

what the natural
scientific

scientists are studying.
is

The problem

of the definition of nature as a whole

really a philosophical,

not a

problem.
definition of nature

The standard
Aristotle's:

among

the Greeks

is

"Nature is the distinctive form of quality of such things as have within themselves a principle of motion, such form or quality not being separable from the
"'

Aristotle goes on remark that nature {physis) is equivalent to growth or development {genesis). On Aristotle's view, it is clear

things themselves, save conceptually.
to

that

he does not think of nature
it

as

a system or unified

whole;
things.

is

simply the source of motion or change in
as children say,

It is,

"what makes the wheels go
it

'round."
is

But when a modern thinker speaks of nature,
is

not of Aristotle's concept that he

thinking.

He

has

in
it
is,

mind, rather, the system of nature as a whole. When comes to defining explicitly what this "system of nature"
there
is

great difference of opinion.

Spinoza spoke of
dethat

God
is.

or nature (deus sive natura) as

synonymous terms
all

scriptive of substance

{substantia), the totality of
a different conception

Kant standardized
prevails in
all

which gov-

erned the use of the term in the nineteenth century and
still

many

quarters.
in the

system of
It

phenomena

For him, nature means the one "real" space and time.
or material

thus corresponds to our idea of physical
10 Aristotle's

Physics,

II,

193b,

tr.

Classical

Library edition.

The Loeb

translation
its

by Wicksteed and Cornford in the Loeb is more illuminating than that
context.

of the Oxford edition for this passage and

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
reality, as

IN

GOD
(natural

211

contrasted with spirit or mind.

The Germans,
sci-

consequently, speak of Naturwissenschajten
ences) as distinguished
of spirit or mind).

from Geisteswissenscha]ten

(sciences

less and less general as its implibecome clearer. It means, for example, that the human mind is not a part of nature a point of view offensive to psychologists and sociologists as well as to pragmatists, and one that is increasingly difficult to hold since evolution has been generally accepted by scientists and naturalists, late like the philosophers. Contemporary Samuel Alexander, E. Scribner Ames, H. N. Wieman, R. W. Sellars, and John Dewey (to mention a few typical names) have ceased to use the term in Kant's sense; for them it means more nearly what it did with Spinoza. With these men, and others, it has come to be a name for all that there is, or at least for all that is knowable by any

Kant's usage has become

cations have

—

legitimate

way

of

knowing.

This

new

usage, while thor-

oughly understandable, has introduced chaos into terminology.

The word

supernatural meant something

when
spirit,

nature was the system of physical phenomena; then
personality, freedom,

and God,

as well as revelation,

could

properly be spoken of as supernatural.
pernatural
is

Now
is.

the

forced into the

awkward
all
is

position of
It

word sumeaning
evident

what

isn't,

since nature

means
change

that

is

that this terminological

slippery

dispose of the essential realities referred to
the supernatural.

and does not by believers in

Nevertheless, since

we

are in the

modern

world,

we must

take cognizance of both the advantages and

disadvantages of
forget that

modern terminology. Yet we should not Kant's way of putting the problem was nearer
he wanted
to

to the essential interest of religion, for

know

whether there was any principle

at

work

in experience other

than the principle of physical motion.

Nature

is

the sys-

212

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
of
all

IN

GOD

tem

motions; but

is

there also a system of values, a

realm of ends?
VIII, IX,

Kant's question will be faced in Chapters

and X.
naturalists restate the problem.

Modern

Instead of dif-

ferentiating between

or Sein and Sollen,

Natur and or fact and

Geist, or nature

and grace,
naturalists,

value,

11

modern
is

holding that mind
that values

is

as natural a fact as

matter, also hold

and

their sustaining

world are
that
is,

as natural as

grounds in the physical any other facts. From their poswithin nature,

tulates, naturalists readily infer the existence

within the realm of the scientifically observable or
of a tendency toward axiogenesis.
12

known,

There certainly

is

experience of value and that experience must have a cause.

Why

not

call this

cause

God?

Many

perplexed minds

of the present age find satisfaction in this apparently simple

and secure formula, which rests on scientific presuppositions and requires no elaborate speculation as a basis for religious
faith.

In order to evaluate this position, a preliminary distinction

must be made, analogous
haviorism.

to current

terminology about be-

When

behavioristic

studies

and theories de-

veloped, it became necessary to differentiate methodological 13 from metaphysical behaviorism. Behaviorism as method meant the study of the behavior of organisms; and no psychologist or philosopher has objected or could rationally
object
to

methodological behaviorism.
is

But metaphysical
it

behaviorism

a radically different theory;

is

the thesis

that, since consciousness

cannot be observed in the sense in

11 See

in a 12
is

Wolfgang Koehler's William James Lectures on "The Place of Value World of Facts," especially "Theories of Value" in PUWF, 35-62.
typical exposition of

such naturalistic theism (the doctrine that God Wieman and Meland, APR, especially 272-306, and 332-348, where the view is often called empirical theism a term much less restrictive than naturalistic theism.
to

For a

be found as part of nature) see

—

13 See

Brightman, ITP, 183-184.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF

IN

GOD

213

which behavior can be observed, consciousness does not exist, or if it does, had best be ignored. The extreme position, held by J. B. Watson, that consciousness does not exist at all A similar is the typical form of metaphysical behaviorism. terminology may well be applied to naturalism. Methodological naturalism may be defined as the view that nature is to be known only by observation and interpretation of the 14 data of human experience. Sometimes (as by Bridgman) methodological naturalism assumes a rigid and restricted form which would confine all knowledge to operations and
their observable

consequences, without interpretation.
all

If

we

observe without interpreting,

our observations, oper-

and actions are mere manipulations of our own we are shut up within But if interpretaourselves, and solipsism is unavoidable. tion be allowed, there is no better objection to methodologations,

experience; without interpretation

ical
fact,

naturalism than to methodological behaviorism.
it

1

''

In

is
I

very close to the
of this

Chapter

method adopted at the outset of book, and is the only tenable alternative

to a rationalistic apriorism or a supernaturalistic revelation-

ism; and even rationalists and supernaturalists would allow
to methodological naturalism

Methodological naturalism
naturalism
is

due validity within its sphere. one thing; metaphysical is
of the

another.

The vagueness

modern

con-

ception of nature has, however, cast a blight over the mean-

ing of metaphysical naturalism.

Yet in general

we may

say that, while old-fashioned Democritean

atomism has vanished
14 See

in

and Hobbesian the presence of emergent evolution
Wieman and
Horton, GOR, 345-349. John Dewey, but he is less rigid
the present writer, whether as

Bridgman, LMP, passim, and
is

The view
in
his

in

many

respects close to that of
it.

conception of
or as

15 Professor
liberal

Wieman
naturalist

finds

it

hard

to classify

(Wieman and Horton, GOR,
is

487,

n.

1.).

Perhaps a

reason for his difficulty
physical naturalism

the failure to discriminate methodological

from meta-

and

to define interpretation.

2i 4

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
physics,
a

IN

GOD

and the newer
still

kind of "physicalism."

terialism

...

of

modern metaphysical naturalism is R. W. Sellars calls it "a ma16 evolved unities and patterns." The
is

metaphysical essence of naturalism

the view that physical

energies and forces are the only ultimately causal or deter-

mining agencies

in the universe

;

that conscious experience

is

product, not producer; and that physical energy and force
are totally lacking in the attributes of conscious thought or

purpose.

In

John Dewey's identification of nature with

"experience" a complex problem arises which almost baffles

definition.

Although Dewey
it

is

much

nearer to idealism

than most naturalists,
the attributes
of

seems reasonably certain that by
thought,
is

experience he means a realm of events which do not possess
conscious
reason,

or

purpose.

Metaphysical naturalism, then,

a denial of the

of conscious spirit in the universe.

This goes

as far

supremacy beyond

the innocence of methodological naturalism as metaphysical

behaviorism goes beyond methodological behaviorism.

Within the
fined there
is

limits of metaphysical naturalism as just dea

marked tendency on
Values, as
of nature.

the part of

naturalists to find a place for religious values and, in
sense, for a

modern some
say, are

God.

W.

G. Everett used to

born in the
thing
at

womb

Within nature there

is

some-

work which

actually produces value experiences in

human

consciousness.

In

his

famous Space, Time and
ulti-

Deity, Samuel Alexander developed the idea that the

mate reality is Space-Time, which, in constant evolution, is producing ever higher types of being. Deity, he held, is for any level the next higher type that follows after it, and God is the whole universe as possessing deity. There is
hardly a naturalist today
processes
in

who

does not recognize that natural

some degree lead to experiences of value. H. N. Wieman, whose views we have frequently men16 See Sellars,

PPR,

4.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
tioned, finds that

IN

GOD

215

God

is

the

name

for all value-producing

processes in nature.
It is

worth while

to point out explicitly the

change that
Until the

has taken place in the thinking of naturalists.

present century, most naturalists were atomistic mechanists.

That is to say, they thought of nature as made up of atoms, and the only forces at work in nature were the motions of these atoms, which obeyed a rigid mechanical law, each set of motions being absolutely determined by previous motions, and so on into the infinite regress and progress of the uniThere was no place for freedom, for novelty, or for verse. purposive control in such a naturalism. But modern naturalism has ceased to be rigidly mechanical, as nineteenth-

century physics has given
theories

way

to

the

less

deterministic

of Heisenberg.

Debaters about mechanism and
a nature entirely free

from purpose Today naturalists grant a larger place to purpose and value, while personalistic theists recognize fully the reality and the importance of mechanism, insisting, indeed, that without mechanisms purposes could neither be communicated from mind to mind nor have any reliable effects in nature. 17 The newer attitude represents to a moderate degree a triumph of the old teleological argument for God. That argument was a declaration that the adjustments and adaptations of means to ends in nature were evidence for a designer. Kant held (rightly) that the argument did not
teleology used to set

up

over against a

God who

rules entirely

by purpose.

prove that there

is

an omnipotent designer, but

at best

an

"architect" rather than a "creator" {Critique of

Pure Reason,

A627).

In

pointing to
17

Kant was half-unconsciously what may be true that God is no omnipotent
this

conclusion

—

For a fuller discussion of
the

this

Machine?" and "Has

World

a

problem, see the Chapters, "Is the World a Purpose?" in Brightman, ITP, 249-314. See

also the bibliographical

references, ibid.,

374-376.

216

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF

IN

GOD

creator in the traditional sense, but rather a finite controller

or "architect" of eternal experience, building purpose and

value as he

toils.

Be that

as

it

may, Kant

stated clearly the
. . .

empirical fact that "this world presents to us

[an] im-

measurable
beauty."
1S

.

.

.

stage of variety, order, purposiveness,

and
are

In reply to our question

ready

now

to give this

Is God minimum
:

a part of nature

?

we

answer.
is

At

least a part

of nature contains evidence that there

an objective source

and continuer of value. Man's value experiences are certainly no mere subjective creations of his fancy or his mores;
beauty, order, cooperation, adaptation, have their objective

grounds.
religion
esses.

There are axiogenetic processes in nature, and an attitude of respect for and trust in those procAs far as this naturalism goes, it is true. But it
is

leaves the axiogenetic processes uninterpreted, unrelated to

the rest of existence, as flowers
hostile soil.

blooming mysteriously

in a
soil

Those who

are curious as to

how

such

could nourish such flowers remain unenlightened.
§ 7.

Is

Nature a Part of God?
that

Over against the view
is

God

is

a part of nature there
is

the antithetical belief that nature
is

a part of

God.

If

God

a

name
is

for selected axiogenetic processes, then all that

can be said
inquire

that

God

is

a part of nature.
it

But
well

if

thought
to

does not stop with these processes,

may

move on

what the source

of those processes

is.

This question,

in connection

with the monotheistic arguments cited in § 4 of the present chapter, leads to the further inquiry whether
there
is

a unitary source for all the processes in nature.
is

Is
it

that source the order of processes in Space-Time, or

God?
18

In raising the question, "Is nature a part of
is
(tr.

God?"
realms

the inquirer
CPR, A622

asking whether nature
N. K. Smith).

is

one of

many

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF

IN

GOD

217

within the divine, rather than being a system external to

God. The question, however, does not yet postulate any view of God other than that of axiogenesis and axiosoteria.

Whether God
If

is

conscious

mind

or

is

unconscious energy or

matter remains undiscussed at present.

God, the Source and Continuer of Value,

is

a unity,

then

God

is

in

some

sense related to or concerned with

everything in nature.

Every event in nature embodies

to

some degree

rational law, beauty,

and

relation, or possible

relation, to the interests

of

human

consciousness.

But

if

nature be defined as the order of objects and events in Space-

Time, experience shows that every human consciousness apprehends values that extend far beyond nature. Natural objects and processes symbolize and generate value; but the actual experience of value is itself no object or process in the physical, Space-Time order. All experience is, indeed,
in time, but not all
is

in space.

In fact,
is

it

is

truer to say

(with

many

idealists) that all space

in conscious experience
is

rather than that conscious experience

in space.

If

we

look in what
esses,

we

call

physical space
If

we
is

find physical proc-

but not consciousness.
all

we

look in consciousness,

we
is

find

the space-experience there

— and also much that
knowlof logical implicaas conscious ex-

entirely nonspatial

and irrelevant
In fact
it

to space, such as

edge of
tion,

ideals, of love, of time, of

V^T,

and of worship.

all values,

periences, transcend space;
space, not space to them.

is

they that give meaning to

In the experience of

man,

spatial

objects

occupy a large (spatially large) room; but an ex-

perience that consisted entirely of spatial objects

would not

admit either of a science of physics or a geometry of space, for both physics and geometry are thinking processes, and
thinking
spatial
is

not a spatial object.

Much

less

would purely
or personal

experience include moral
or social

obligation,

identity,

communication, or prayer.

From

the

218

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF

IN

GOD

standpoint of value, the whole realm of space-objects is purely instrumental. All intrinsic value is nonspatial experience.

we build our view of God on this empirical testimony, then we may say that the spatial aspect of God is a vast, yet
If

subordinate, area of the divine being; and that spaceless

and values, as well as other nonspatial types of being of which we have not the remotest inkling, make up the most important aspects of the being of God. On the supposition that God is a unity and that nature is not a created order external to God, this view is at least possible.
ideals
§
8.

Is

God All That There
as

Is

?

There have been many,

we saw

in

Chapter V,

§ 6,

who

have denied both of the views just discussed. For these thinkers, God is not a part of nature, nor is nature a part
of

God, but God and nature
all

are

synonymous terms, each
is

designating

that there

is.

Spinoza

the classic repre-

sentative of such

pantheism

in occidental thought,

he comes close to saying that nature (as order) is part of God, for extension is one of the
tributes of

although Space-Time the
infinite at-

God.

There

is

much
If

that

makes some form
is is

of pantheism
for

seem
seems
is

acceptable.

philosophy

"the quest

the
is

world's

unity," the formula that all
to be the

God and God
and
logic;

all

supreme goal of the quest.

Yet philosophy
it

not

a quest for unity regardless of facts

is

a quest

for such unity as the facts logically admit of.

The

question

then

arises

whether

it

is

logical to say that the source

and

continuer of value

is all

that there

is,

considered as a unity.

But the problem arose in the first place from the fact that man knew himself not to be the source and continuer of
value.

The

pantheist replies: Truly,

man

alone

is

not the

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
source of axiogenesis, but

IN

GOD

219

man
that
is

is

an

essential part of the

whole, and

it is

the

whole

axiogenetic and axiosoteric.

This argument has persuaded

many

thinkers.
it

(1)

It

furnishes a unified system of philosophy, (2)

satisfies

the

needs of religious mystics who long to merge their being with the divine to which they belong, and (3) it affords a
basis for

optimism, in that the whole

is

good, however

evil

the parts

may

be taken separately.
asserts a unity;

The
unity
really
is

objections to pantheism nevertheless outweigh the
it.

arguments for

(1)

It

but unless that
spirit, it is
it is

the oneness of an all-inclusive conscious
It is

an ineffable name.

the syllable
it

"OM,"
is

"some-

how
all

one" (we

know

not how),

is

transcendently beyond
its
is

experience and thought.

(2) If

unity

taken to be

that of a conscious spirit, then there

a contradiction be-

tween the point of view of the infinite and the point of view If John Jones is a part of God, then all of the of the finite. ignorance of John Jones, all of his error, must be a part of God. Now, God, if he were a conscious cosmic spirit, could
well

know

both John Jones's errors and the correction of

them, but such a

God

could not, while knowing the correc-

tion of John's errors also entertain those errors believing

them
at

to be truths, as John does. Spiritual or personalistic pantheism (or absolutism) requires that we believe that God

one and the same time while thinking "John Jones,"
errs,

genuinely and sincerely and ignorantly
rects,

and

also cor-

supplements, and transcends those errors.
states of

To

ascribe

such contradictory
at the cost of logic.

mind

to

God

is

to seek unity

If there is a conscious God, then, this argument proves that he cannot include as part of himself any person who errs, is ignorant, or sins. If there is a personal God, he is not all that there is. There are at least other persons, although this argument in no way disproves

220

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
is

IN

GOD
is

that nature as the realm of Space-Time objects

perhaps
it

included within God; nature
ignorant, erroneous, or sinful.

incomplete, but

is

not

argument against pantheism is related to the it would appear that if God is absolutely all-inclusive, God would include all evil as well as all good. There might be some way in which God would include "natural" evil. But for God to include moral evil would make the divine an incoherent chaos and would destroy distinctions between good and evil. (4) Some forms of pantheism would ma\e freedom impossible by the de(3) second.
third

A

In general,

terminism of the whole; but
all types,

this objection

does not apply to

especially not to those of Josiah

Royce and M.

W.

Calkins,
act,

who

hold that

when John

Jones performs a free
else in
19

he

is

the Absolute in action

and that nothing
act.

the Absolute determines the nature of his
§

9.

Is

God Wholly Other Than Nature ?

In § 9 of Chapter V we found that many entertain the conception of God as wholly superhuman and supernatural.

For

this view, generally called deistic since the

middle of the
of

nineteenth century,
sense; he
is is

God
is,

is

not

human
is
is

experience in any

no part of nature; nature
although he

no part

him; he

not

all

that there

the creator of nature

and man.
Since religion
is

concerned with values,
led

it

is

easy to see

what considerations have
ism.

men

to

extreme supernatural-

They have been aware, on the one hand, of an urge within, which beckoned them on to perfection; this urge
they have regarded as a revelation of the divine.
other hand, they, like every realistic observer of

On
life,

the

have

been acutely aware of impediments to ideal value in human nature and in physical nature. Man's soul is weak, his
19 See Calkins,

by declaring that knowledge of God "precedes and produces" knowledge of ourselves. (His method is thus completely a priori and utterly opposed to the empirical method of this book.) For
of his Institutes of the Christian Religion

Calvin,

about
ing

God is so wholly other than man that we God not by interpreting our experience, but by

learn
turn-

away from it to God. It is not our values God; but we are driven to him by "our miserable
tion."

that reveaf
ruin," "our

ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, depravity, and corrupCalvin's

argument evinces the
falls far

desirability of there
is

being a God, yet

short of proving that there

one.

But for Calvin there is a God and he is utterly superhuman and supernatural. Like Christian Science, Calvinism is 20 "uncontaminated by human hypotheses." Is this supernaturalistic deism a true account of the Source and Continuer of Values ? By its rigorous realism, its moral sublimity, and its self-consistent logic, it has long maintained ascendancy over the minds of men, and is probably held by a larger number of Protestants than is any other single view.
20 It should

be noted that Saint

Thomas Aquinas
not the
first

is

far

more empirical than
arrive at the
S.

Calvin, for he holds that

God

is

that

we know; we

knowledge of God by inference from the creation
a. 3-

to the creator.

Th.,

I.

q. 88,

222

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
emphasis on man's inferiority
to

IN

GOD
from

Its

God
at

reappears in the

teaching of Schleiermacher, otherwise

the antipodes

Calvin, that religion consists essentially in a sense of de-

pendence on God.
that the

Its

logic

is

also

roughly paralleled in the

for God, which holds world contains nothing necessary; all in it is contingent. But there must be a necessary being on which the contingent depends, and hence a God. Or, the world is a series of causes ad infinitum; but there must be a first cause, and hence a God.
traditional cosmological

argument

Once again we

ask,

is

the belief in this utterly supernatural

God

justified?

The

answer, from the point of view of
(i) Calvin's

philosophy, must be negative,

argument that
is

our very depravity evidences our need of
to saying that the

him

equivalent
it

worse everything

is

the

more we wish

Such an argument expresses a desire, not a reason for faith, unless supported by real evidence. (2) The revelation; but we found in Chapsupernaturalist appeals to ter VI that all revelation-claims must be tested by the very
were
better.

evidence of coherent interpretation of experience that the
supernaturalist rejects.
(3) If

human

nature

is

so

wretched

perfect

and God so sublimely perfect, it is difficult to see why so and omnipotent a God would create creatures doomed
It is

to such imperfection.

cult one.

(4) The concept of creation is a diffitrue that any view of evolution must recog-

nize a genuinely creative

power

in the universe.

However,

the deistic supernaturalist places so wide a gulf between creator

how there much less

and creation that it is all but impossible to conceive could ever have been any relation between them,
so close a relation as assumed.

Therefore the
highly

notion of deistic supernaturalism must be

set aside as

improbable, along with the notion of spiritual pantheism.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
§

IN

GOD

223

10. Is

God Unconscious Axiogenesis?
is

The
to the

question which

now

raised

is

really not additional
It

problems we have been considering.

summarizes
is

a standpoint underlying the views that

God

a part of

nature (§ 6), or the whole of reality (§ 8), or a being of whom the physical Space-Time order is a part (§ 7), or

wholly other than nature (§ 9), or an unknowable source of all being (Chapter V, § 7).
It is
is itself

not logically impossible that the source of
valueless

all

value

and the source of all consciousness unconscious. An effect is not bound to resemble a cause, either phenomenally or ontologically. Yet if God, the ground
of
all

conscious value
is

(all

actual value

is

conscious expeto say that

rience)
is

unconscious, then

we

shall

have

God

unknown, if not unknowable. For we have available from our analysis of experience only three categories for the interpretation of existence. The first is the category
utterly

of consciousness; the second

is

the category of the spatiois

temporal (the physical)

;

and the third
11

the category of

the neutral (the purely subsistent, neither mental nor physical),

contributed by the neorealists.

If

God

is

unconscious

and he is known, then he is either spatio-temporal order or a complex of neutral entities. There are grave
axiogenesis,

objections to either view.
it

If

God

is

purely spatio-temporal,

would appear that he can have only physicochemical properties, and never become conscious or initiate any axiogenesis. If, on the other hand, he is a complex of neutral entities, we face the problem which neorealism failed to solve, as to how existence can be derived from subsistence. It is clear how subsistence may be derived from existence, namely, by abstraction. But from nonexisting, nonmental, nonphysical, and noncausal neutral entities, how can any
21

The term

neutral entity

was originated, however, by Professor H. M.

Sheffer.

224

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
?

IN

GOD

existence whatever be concretely derived

"

Neither matter

nor mind,

to say

nothing of values, can be really explained

Hence, if one insists on having an unconscious in this way. God, the soundest procedure is to say that his nature is wholly unknown. The seeming intellectual humility in admitting our ignorance appeals to many minds. Furthermore, our "knowledge" of everything

we

say

we know is
Yet
this

so tentative, so subject

to correction, so incomplete

and inaccurate,

that

we may
intelis

well profess our ignorance.
lectual humility

well-grounded

may

be overdone.
is

Every true

scientist

humble; but
Likewise,
idea of
it

his humility

expressed by his open-minded

search for truth, not by ceasing to experiment or to think.

may
to
is

be a false humility in the presence of the

God

pronounce the word "unknown."
If

The

task

of philosophy

to explore all possibilities, to try every

avenue

of thought, to keep searching.
physical

thought

is

baffled

by

a

God

or a neutral

God

or an

the so-called revolutionary ideas of
alleys.

unknown God, then God have led to blind
is

May

it

not be possible that an evolutionary idea

worth

trying, based

on the idea of God

as consciousness

and

reinterpreting the

all
it

but universal testimony of religious

experience ?

May

not be that the conception of a personal

God

is

the most rational road to truth about religion?
§

ii.

Is

God a Person?

Since belief in the personality of
living religion as
it

God

is

central to

most
it is

now

exists in the

world, and since

indicated as the direction in

which philosophy
it

of religion

must continue

to explore if

is

to be evolutionary rather
this belief will

than revolutionary, the problems attendant on

22 For a discussion of some of the issues involved see the Chapter on "The Chief Philosophical World Views" in Brightman, ITP, 212-248, and Hoernle,

Art. (1927).

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
their

IN

GOD

225

be taken up in some detail, but far more incompletely than

importance warrants.
to

We
is

shall first inquire
23

what

it

means

ask whether

God

personal,

and then

shall pre-

sent the chief evidence for

and against the truth

of the belief.

(1) First of

all,

the popular view of God's personality

must be rejected as impossible. By "the popular view" is meant a view held so widely in nonphilosophical and nontheological circles as to amaze thinkers by its persistence, namely, that God is an old man with a beard whose chief 24 If function lies in assigning souls to heaven or to hell. there is a personal God, controlling the whole universe, it is
obviously childish to think of
of body, youthful or aged;

him

as localized in

any

sort

and

his concerns

with the entire

on earth, are at least as important as those which have to do with human life after death. These latter, furthermore, must be more rational and more moral than the traditional idea of heaven and hell would allow.
cosmos, including
all

human

history

(2) Furthermore, certain quasi-scientific views of divine

personality

must be rejected

as

being both philosophically

and

religiously scarcely above the level of the popular

ma-

terialism just rejected.

These

quasi-scientific views center

about the idea that

if

God
25

is

personal, then he

must be a
treat

psychophysical organism.
sonality in this
23 Professor

Does not psychology

per-

way?

The

rhetorical question can be

tween saying that

Georgia Harkness has undertaken in discussion to distinguish beGod is a person and saying that he is personal, on the ground Since every term that the noun is more easily misunderstood than the adjective. may be misunderstood, even after explanation, the distinction raised does not appear
to be important. 24 Professor Alois Riehl of Berlin stated in a lecture

(1910) that such was his

early conception;

it

appears as the

"modern"

idea of the essence of belief in a

personal

Straw
in

God in Charles G. Norris's very twentieth-century novel, Bricks Without (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1938), 134-135; it emerges discussion so frequently, even among educated people, that it may be called
The
best psychological

the standard popular view.
25

work on

the subject

is

Gordon

Allport's Personality.

226

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
affirmative.

IN

GOD
is

answered only in the
fied in treating

Psychology
a person

fully justi-

human

personality as an organic

phenomeother
the
It is
is

non.

But the

belief that

God
is

is

is,

among

things, the belief that
belief that

God

not a

human

person.

"God

is

a spirit," a

being whose esse

to

be
to

conscious, to experience, to think, to will, to love,

and

control the ongoing of the universe by rational purpose.

The

hypothesis that there
denies that the earth

is is

a personal

God, then,

is

one which

the only place where consciousness

has emerged in the universe, and which therefore denies that
consciousness
conceived.
is

the product of any organism materialistically
assertion, therefore, that a personal

The

God

must be
universe.

a psychophysical

organism

is

mere quasi
It
is

science,

transferring the conditions of
It
is

human

existence to the

whole

uncritical empiricism.

anthropomorobjectionable

phism
(3)

in

a

most objectionable sense
it

—more

than in the popular view, because

poses as science.

To

lieve that
is

God, accordingly, is to bethe unbegun and unending energy of the universe
believe in a personal
is

conscious rational will, a conscious purpose that

coherent,
exist

selective,

and

creative.

Such

a will or

purpose cannot
in

in abstracto;

it is

the functioning of a total, unified, conscious
it

personality,

or

is

nothing.

Belief

a

personal

God

(theism) does not entail of
matter.

itself

any particular view of

Some

theists

are dualists or agnostics about the

nature of matter; others (including the writer) are idealists

and regard matter as being an order of organization of the 26 experience of God. The one essential factor in personal theism is that the ultimate creative energy of the cosmos is
personal
will.

Prior to

the appearance
all

of
life,

self-conscious

beings on this earth, prior to
26 Discussion of the idealistic

organic

prior to the

physics

which

is

(personalistic) view of matter is a task of metawith great reluctance excluded from the crowded pages of this

philosophy of religion.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
solar system itself

IN

GOD

227

and

all

astronomical phenomena, the

eternal energy has always been

and will always be personal
to

consciousness.

James

Bissett Pratt objects to the idea of a

consciousness that has as
27

much

do

as,

say,

Berkeley's

theory required, on the ground that
too busy a God.

we should

thus have
frivolous.

Such an objection seems almost

any being that has the entire universe in its care must be very busy; to urge this busyness as an objection to the control of God over the world is really equivalent to
After
all,

complaining about the complexity of nature.

Let us
distress

now
if

examine
belief
is

this belief in a personal

God, without

the

too vast for our imagination to picture.

(4)

The
critics

evidence for belief in a personal
28

God

has been

stated frequently.

In

fact,

the only "objection"
is

which

some

have to the evidence

that

it

has been presented

before

—a

singularly inept

comment when unaccompanied

by any refutation or counterevidence.
In connection with the previous sections of this chapter,
the

well-known

traditional
§ 5,

arguments have been touched
the teleological in
§ 6,

on: the ontological in

and the

cosmological in

§ 9.

The

evidence for belief in a personal

God
(i)

will

now
all

be presented without regard to those arguof the actual data empirically available are

ments.
Since
all that is inferred from those data must be consistent with and explanatory of conscious experience. We may call the present experience of any one of

more coherent than any alternative hypothetical entity. That the hypothesis of a personal God is coherent with the
facts of personal consciousness in actual entities able.
is

undeni-

Whether
is

it

is

more coherent than any
is

alternative
fact

hypothesis

not susceptible to rigid proof.

But the

that every hypothetical entity

logically derivative

from

actual entities

is

undeniable, although the importance of this
a fact even
it

egocentric predicament has been questioned by Ralph Bar-

ton Perry.

After

all,

a

fact

is

if

dubbed

a

predicament, and the
a personal
(ii)

fact, as far as

goes,

is

evidence for

God.

30

The

previous argument was based on the data of the
all

actual entity, as containing

the evidence for the reality
starts

other than ourselves.

The second argument

the hypothetical entities of physics

(force, energy,

from work)

and goes on

to the inference that all physical forces are
as, at

known
act

only in so jar

some

stage of their being, they

on and produce conscious experience. This fact is consistent with the hypothesis that physical forces are either the
will of a personal

God

in action or are effects (or creations)

of that will.

Critics will rightly point out the inference to

the personality of

cogent reason
29

God is not conclusive, since there is no why an effect (in consciousness) should reYet,

semble a cause (in the physical world).
Without regard
to

although

A. N. Whitehead's technical use of this term. 30 The standard formulation of the egocentric predicament is in Holt (ed.), NR, 11-12. See also Jared Sparks Moore's excellent criticism in "The Significance
of the Egocentric Situation," Jour. Phil., 35(1938), 149-156.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
effects

IN

GOD
If

229

need not resemble causes, causes should not be so

defined as to
ical

make

their actual effects impossible.
is

phys-

no reason why their effects should be anything but motions (however different the effected motions may be from their causes). But if
causes are merely motions, there

physical causes are in the realm of the conscious will of

phenomena and
intelligible.
(iii)

God, they are not merely motion, and both the physical their effects on human consciousness are
All evidence for law and order in a universe
is

also

evidence for a personal

mind

at

work

in that universe.

Strangely enough, the opposite has often been supposed to

be the

case.

Anomalies, miracles,

eccentricities,

have been
at

taken as evidence of a divine mind.

But law which shows
mathematician

what work

Sir
is

James Jeans has called
plainly evidence that
is

a divine

consistent with regarding

the physical cosmos as the energizing of a rational mind.

While order does not necessitate mind, mind order, and order is coherent with mind.
(iv)

necessitates

All evidence for purpose, either as a psychological

fact in

man

or other animals, or as a biological or physico-

chemical fact of objective adaptation of means to ends in
nature (see
§

6 above), or as a directive force in evolution
fit") is

(such as orthogenesis, or "the arrival of the
for a personal

evidence

God.

While

it

is

conceivable that the ap-

pearance of purpose
the

may

be caused by what has no purpose,
great that the appeal to acciless

number

of

telic facts is so

dent or coincidence becomes
evidence multiplies.

purpose

as

and less plausible as the That accident should produce as much actually exists would be no less than magical.

(v) The evidence of history of religion, with its trend toward monotheism, of psychology of religion, with its goal in the integration of personality, and of sociology of religion, with its ideal of cooperation and universal benevolence, is

23 o

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
is

IN

GOD
critic will
itself

well explained by the hypothesis that one supreme personal

God

at

work
it

in all religious experience.

31

The

point out that religious experience cannot be taken by
as authentic;

may

be explained by a desire for unity rather

than by the actual unity of a personal God.
it

To

the critic

may

be replied that while

it

is

not philosophical to base
is it

an ontology on selected evidence, neither
to

philosophical

omit any evidence.

No

conclusion about God, however

tentative,

may

rightly be reached without including the area

of religious experience as well as the areas of physicochemical

and biological experience. In general, the whole domain of value experience (see Chapter III) of axiogenesis and axiosoteria is even
(vi)

—

—

more

explicitly coherent

with the hypothesis of a personal

God
to

than are other facts of law and order.
intellect

The

latter

point

which must indeed be personal, but need not be good; the former point to a personality worthy of worship. God is worshiped solely as source of value; and the hyan
pothesis of the personality of
rational

God

is,

as

and concrete
impersonal

alternative to supposing

we have seen, the God to be

wholly unknown.
as abstract

The

supposition that "Platonic" Ideas,

entities, eternally subsist

plain the validity of ideal values, but

phenomena of An abstract ideal has no power to generate values or conserve them; that power inheres only in persons who adopt
plained the actual
the ideals as their own.
perience,

might exwould leave unexaxiogenesis and axiosoteria.

Value

is

inherently a personal exis

and

if

the cosmic source of value

itself a

value

yit

realizing ideals. The most serious argument lies in the facts of evil, the sordid, tragic, overwhelming evils of mind and body and nature. This objection is so important that Chapters VIII, IX, and

seem most implausible; personalism, human and extrahuman factors, is
be pointed out that the evidence for

more

rational.

(viii)

Finally,

it

may

God

consists of empirical facts

which survive

all disbelief.

Indeed, some of the most ardent denials of the existence of a
personal

God

are themselves further evidence for such a

God.
in

Values are actually experiences, whether
or not.

God

As has

just

been

said, the denial of

man believes God is
value,

often, indeed usually, the assertion of

some genuine
facts,

such

as sincerity, or realistic

facing of

or (as in Soviet

32 See
33 See

Bowne, PER, passim.
Brightman,

"An

Empirical Approach to God," Art. (1937).

232

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
The
on
reality

IN

GOD
depend
evidence
as athe-

Russia) revolt against the antisocial attitudes of believers in

God.
at all

and

validity of values does not

belief in a personal

God; but

the persistence of

value experience

when

a personal

God

is

denied

is

for an axiogenetic

power

in the universe.

As long

ism

is

based on any appeal to truth or goodness or beauty,
itself is

atheism
(5)

evidence for theism.

The

evidence against belief in a personal
first

God

is,

ex-

cept for the

point to be mentioned, speculative rather
speculation was justified by

than empirical, whereas the evidence for such belief was
largely empirical,

and

its

its

empirical basis.
(i)

The only

empirical argument against belief in a per-

sonal

God

above).

It is

has already been mentioned (under (4), (vi) the fact of evil. The irrationalities of sex, of

liquor, of a crazy

economic system, and of the implacable
all

cruelty of biological processes are illustrated not only in

honestly realistic literature, but also in daily experience.

This problem will receive due consideration
(ii)

later.

neural basis of consciousness is often urged as an objection to belief in a conscious God without a nervous
system.

The

The whole

force of this

argument depends, not on
a nervous system really
it
is.

the empirical fact that

man
what
34

has a nervous system, but on

one's metaphysical theory of
If a
it

what

nervous system

is

materialists take

to be, then
if
it

cannot without magic
34

produce consciousness; but

A

naturalist

may

called by the

name

of magic.

reasonably object to having a repeatedly observed process If anything ever produces anything, then nervous

systems,

whatever they

may

be,

naturalistic description of this process

do produce consciousness. Nevertheless, the seems to an idealist to be magical. The
lies

reason for this radical difference of opinion
to

in the fact that a naturalist appeals
idealist.

a different criterion of truth
satisfied

from that of an
achieve.

Naturalists

seem

to

be
as

with consistency.
satisfied

Idealists

are not satisfied

without coherence, and

much

coherence as the
is

mind can

Perhaps

we might

say

that the

naturalist
a

with a

minimum

of coherence, whereas the idealist seeks
it is true, for the most part But mere absence of contradiction,

maximum.

The

statements of naturalists are,

consistent with each other

and with the

facts.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
is

IN
it

GOD
to be,

233

what

idealists or personalistic theists
itself is

take

then

the nervous system

no argument against
it is

a personal

God,

since

it is

an instance of the

activity of that

God.
is

(iii)

The

hypothesis of a personal God,

urged,
is

not

necessary for physical science,
fluous.

and consequently

super-

The

critic

of this objection admits that the idea of

God
is

is

superfluous for science, but points out that science

an abstract and incomplete account of experience and that scientists do not aim at .metaphysical truth. It should be
pointed out that
personality
all ideals

and

values,

and

all

reference to

and personal

identity, are just as superfluous
is

and

irrelevant for science as

the idea of God.

This objection

shows the kinship of philosophy with
as

religion,

and shows

we saw

in

Chap. VI,

is

not coherence.

The

facts of

experience as they stand,

without
(or

scientific

observation or explanation, are perfectly consistent; facts cannot

be contradictory, only propositions can contradict each other.

Now,
and
is

if

consistency

minimum

coherence)
is

is

all

the

mind
is

needs, then thought
fact B,
. . .

might stop with
so

the propositions, "Here

fact

A, here

,"

on.

Science,
co-

while no more consistent than these bare-fact propositions,
herent.
It

much more

reveals connections not immediately observed.

Scientists

might well

"Your view of the coming and going of exmere magic. You declare that the facts come and go, but you don't know how, because you do not understand their connections." So, too, the idealistic philosopher may, from his standpoint, compare naturalism to magic.
say to the exponent of bare facts:

perience

is

He may
is

say to the naturalist: "Sir, your view, like the view of the bare-f actualist,

consistent;

issues

—having
it

and
to

I

grant

it

is

more coherent than
experience

his.

But

as regards the vital

do with

the connections of the conscious with the material,

of value experience with neutral

—

and

in

proportion as your view lacks

coherence,

is

an appeal

to

magic.

From

the standpoint of a
a
less

more coherent,
coherent view
the facts

more connected,

systematic,

and purposeful explanation,

appears like magic."
of experience and

The

hypothesis of personal idealism, which views physical
all

energy as the active will of the cosmic mind, consistently includes
all

the results of science, but illuminates with

new

systematic

connections
piety." accept,
rational of

many

facts

and

relations

which the
is

naturalist
as

must take "with natural
well
as

Personalities

require a piety that
all

rational

natural.

They

equally with naturalists,

facts

of sense observation,

but they seek a

account of these facts, free from "magic." Personalists have no need "magic" when they view nature, including all nervous systems, as the ex-

perience of a cosmic
quite

mind

that constantly interacts with
is

all

other minds.
not

It

is

understandable that so great a mind as God's
basis

not readily grasped as
is

one mind on the
all,
it

of ordinary experience.

is

not understandable where any

But if nature minds come from.

mind

at

234

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
must omit the
It

IN

GOD
as

that science

religious

problem

long as

it

remains science.

does not, however, establish even a

probability that the idea of

God

is

false,

"value-free" attitude of science

establishes a

any more than the presumption

against goodness or beauty.
(iv)
fiable
It is

asserted that belief in a personal
is

and

consequently to be rejected.
is

35

God is unveriThe problem

of verification

a bone of contention in

modern philosophy

epistemology.

and cannot be solved without a complete system of logic and But it is at least possible that there is reason
any
literal sense.
is I

to believe in the real existence of objects that cannot be verified in
It is

conceivable that verification

in the strict sense
scious experience.
entity,

confined to the individual's
verify

own

con-

what

I

find in

my

empirical situation;

all else, I

my own actual believe. No hypo-

thetical entity
past,

can
I

strictly

be verified.

even that

had

a past

That there was a and existed yesterday, is unveri-

fiable,

although a well-grounded hypothesis.
strictly verified;

No

historical

event can be

the assertion that there are
is

other conscious beings than myself

literally unverifiable,

although these persons are objects of coherent and empirically

grounded

beliefs.

Least of

all

could such an extraex-

periential

entity

as

matter ever be verified.

Yet every

rational

mind

believes that matter in

some
is

sense exists

(howvary).

ever greatly the definitions of the particular sense

may

The supposed

unverifiability of

God

logically in the

same

position as these other entities.

solipsism or believe, for
fiable entities.

We must either surrender to good empirical reasons, in unveriGod
is

(v)

The concept

of a personal

said to be

an exof all
it

pression of man's arrogance.

Why
If this

should the

God

resemble

man
LTL.

in

any way?

argument be

valid,

stands in curious contradiction with the empirical fact that
35 See Ayer,

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
arrogance
as

IN

GOD

235

in general religious persons have regarded all expressions of
irreligious.

Believers in

God

have practised

and taught humility and meekness. It is true that churches have often been arrogant and have allied themselves with arrogant economic secularism and wealth. But in so doing they were contradicting rather than expressing the implicaIt is difficult to see why relitions of their belief in God. gious thinking is more arrogant than any thinking by scientists or philosophers, which lays claim to objectivity for observations and reasonings that go on in the minds of puny creatures such as we. What is sauce for the goose is
sauce for the gander.
(vi) It
is

often pointed out that personality cannot be
is

ultimate, since logical subsistence

more ultimate than any
realm
is

concrete actuality.
of essence,
is

The
it is

possible, the subsistent, the

what

regardless of existence.

Truth

true

whether there is any exemplification of it in actuality or not. If there were no reality at all, it would still be true that there was no reality and that all logical relations are valid. As a German soldier wrote in a letter during the World War, not all the destruction of values by heavy artillery can affect
the truth of the transcendental unity of apperception.
considerations, abstract

and speculative

as they are,

These have

considerable weight.

They prove

at least that if a

personal

God

is

eternally real, the logical subsistents are not created
logic
logi-

by his will. They prove that in any possible world must be true. They also prove that no metaphysics is
cally as necessary as
is

logical subsistence itself.

They do not
what
status

prove, however, that subsistence could produce any kind of
existence nor

do they render
last

clear concretely

bare subsistence could have in a real universe.
alist

The

person-

has an answer to this

perplexing question; he sug-

gests that subsistence defines the limits of possible thought;

a subsistent

is

any possible object of thought

—

real,

imaginary,

236

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
The
personalist
is

IN

GOD
that

hypothetical, true or false.
there

must admit

a degree of logical contingency attaching to any

concrete actuality, even to the actuality of God.

This

is

another
ent.

way

of saying that

God

is

actual, not

merely

subsist-

This does not entail the necessary or probable non-

actuality of

God;
It
is

it

is

only a denial of the logical necessity
not a place of superior enlight-

of belief.

always possible to take refuge in the unrefuge
is

known; but such
enment.
(vii) Finally,

it is

argued that there

is

a contradiction in

speakjng of a creation of creators. This argument against personalistic theism has been urged especially by Vatke and
Bosanquet. Since it has to do with the theory of human freedom rather than with divine personality as such, its discussion will be deferred to Chapter XI, "The Problem of

Human

Purpose."
§

12.

Is

God a Superperson?
hesitate to apply the

Some

philosophers, although impressed by the evidence

for the personality of

God,
it is

sonal to deity because
36

so very

human

a term.

word perThey

have proposed therefore the use of the term "superpersonal."

The famous
is
is

sentence of Bradley reads: "It [the
it

Absolute]

not personal, because
left

is

The "and more"
plicitly

undefined.

personal and more." However, Bradley ex"is

admits that

this

superpersonal
all

nothing but ex-

perience" and "contains

the highest that

we can

possibly

know
ophers

or feel,"

which

is

exactly

what most

theistic philos-

mean when
still

they speak of divine personality.

Yet

Bradley

thinks that to call
sense

God

personal makes

him

finite in a

human
main

Bradley's
36 Bradley,

objections are

(AR, 532). met when God
Lighthall,

is

described
Whitehead's

AR, 531-533, and

Art.(i926).
slant in the

Some
same

of

references to "the primordial nature of

God"

direction.

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
as

IN

GOD
it

237

superhuman
It is

personality.

If
is

God

be a person,

is

self-

evident that his experience

incomparably vaster than
man's.

man's.

certain that
utterly

he has powers unknown to man,
It
is

and goodness

transcending

highly

probable that he has indefinitely

many

types of experience

unknown
is

to us,

which

are barely hinted at

by such

facts as

the ultraviolet and infrared rays, invisible to

man.
yet

But

it

one thing to say that personality which

is

in part

known
know;

includes kinds of experience of

which we do not

and it is quite another thing to say that there is an entity of some sort which is lacking in all consciousness and experience and rational personal identity, and yet is higher than personality. In the former sense we may say that God In the is superpersonal, meaning superhumanly personal.
latter sense, since

wishfully,

we cannot define our hypothesis except we cannot know whether an unconscious "superwould be
better or worse than personality,

personality"

and

we cannot

use the concept to explain any aspect of actual

conscious entities such as ourselves.
the unconscious and impersonal,
verse,
is

As

far as

we can know,

if

such there be in the uni-

sonality.

label

below and not above the level of conscious perAt best the unconscious superpersonal is but a for the unknown, and not a definable hypothesis.
§
13.

Religion and Theory

The
trust

discussions of belief in

God

in this chapter

have

car-

ried us far

away from

the simple experiences of religious
technicalities

and

faith into

many
has

will inquire:

What

all this

to

and disputes. do with religion?

Some
Is

not

religion a

way of living rather than a way of theorizing? Such questioners will sympathize with the plaint of Thomas a Kempis, "I had rather feel compunction than know its
There
is

definition."

some

force in this objection.

Neither the present

238

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
is

IN

GOD
as a religious

chapter nor this text as a whole
experience.

intended
is

A
is

philosophy of religion

derstand and criticize religion intellectually.
of religion

an attempt to unPhilosophy

not religion
is

itself

of

meteorology
is

sunshine or tempest.

any more than the science To understand

seismology
readily

not to experience an earthquake, and one

may

experience an earthquake without understanding

anything about seismology.

So

too,

one

may

experience

God

without understanding any of the principles of phiissue at stake

losophy of religion.

The

is

simple:

Do we
?

or

do we not believe
not,

that experience

may

be guided, redirected, and improved as
If

a result of rational understanding

we do
But
if

we

should

avoid philosophy of religion.
tarian state, can

No

one, even in an authori-

compel us
is
it

to think.

we

believe that

rational understanding
is

both possible and profitable, there

no reason

to take

lightly.

We

should explore every

possibility until

and then

we have reached such clarity as we can find, we may use that area of clarity as a center for
But it is is not theory, nor is theory religion. and harmful both psychologically and morally,

further growth.

Religion
irrational,

for a thinking

man

not to think about his religion.

A

thoughtless religion in a thinking
personality

mind

leads to a divided

and system of double entry ideals. Pra ctical life in all its forms needs all the theoretical guidance it can secure, and theory is empty if not tested and applied in practical life,. If the protestor means that experience is prior to and the source of all valid theory, he is right. But if he means that religious experience can survive without theory, he has no historical basis for his thesis. All religions have had doctrines.
Specifically, religion requires the application of

our best

theories about

God

to the concrete struggle with the forces

THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF
of

IN

GOD
is

239

good and

evil.

The

facts of evil are the glaring empirical

evidence against God.
the source of

The

struggle against evil

at

once

and the fulcrum for the Archimedean lever of religion. All argument about God remains formal until its concrete application to the goods and
despair
evils of life is

human

made

clear.

Chapters VIII through

XIV

will
life

be concerned with problems arising out of this concrete
situation.

Bibliographical

Note

The

entire bibliography of
is

Chapter

V

bears

on

this chapter,

and the reader

referred to the materials there cited.
is well presented by Knudson, EAG(i938), and Hocking, MGHE(i9i2). view is found in Joyce, PNT(i923). Critical

While there is doubtless some value in the life of every normal human being, and a predominance of value ovef disvalue for a large number, it is nevertheless a patent fact that the quantity and the distribution of evils make difficult the belief in a good God who can be trusted to
conserve values eternally.

No

objection to religious

For many that belief is impossible. faith compares in seriousness with
If religion, as

that arising
2

from the
is

fact of evil.

Gordon W.
all

Allport has said,
things,"
1 It

"the search for a value underlying
is

that search

rendered most perplexing by the

cannot be too often repeated that value experience is such that it cannot be conserved without being increased. Sorley criticizes HdfTding for speaking of conservation rather than increase (or perfection) of values (MVIG, 177-181), although Hoffding explicitly asserts that "value can only be retained by being
increased" (PR, 11).
2 Allport,

PER, 226.
240

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
all evil really

241

abundance of disvalue. Does value underlie disvalue? Is good ? If not, what is the source of evil, the

jons et origo

malorum?
is

Yet

this

statement of the problem

not

sufficient.

point out that evils are a problem for believers in
necessary but not sufficient.
as is evil,

To God is

Good

is

as

much

a

problem

unless

man

is

so

smugly

self-centered as to accept
Belief in

whatever he

likes

without even a thought.

God
to
is

and
solve

in the faith

and practices of religion is an attempt the problem of good. But the problem of good

not solved satisfactorily to the philosopher unless the solution arises

from

a

contemplation of

all

the evidence.
it

The

evidence does not consist of goods alone;
evils.
It is

also consists of

therefore equally incomplete to center (as

we

have been doing) on the problem of good, or to plunge
(as
evil.
it is

we may

be in danger of doing) into the problem of
justified in

We

were

beginning with value, because

the very heart of religion;

we should

not be justified

in arriving at conclusions about value without

examining

the evidence of disvalue.

Hence we

confront, not the prob-

lem of good or the problem of 3 problem of good-and-evil.
§ 2.

evil,

but the

compound

GOODS-AND-EVILS AS INTRINSIC AND INSTRUMENTAL
III,

In Chapter

§

2,

it

was pointed out
this

that values (or

goods)
are
3

4

are

either

intrinsic

or instrumental.

When we
becomes
in

considering goods-and-evils,

distinction
"Good and

On

this

chapter as a whole, consult the

article,

Evil,"

ERE,

VI, by
4

W.

D. Niven.
precise equivalents.
to

The terms value and good are used as compound good-and-evil is preferred both more euphonious and more familiar.
the

In this chapter,

value-and-disvalue

because

it

is

The

use of the term good should

not mislead the reader into supposing that moral goods (character values) are intended, in contrast to aesthetic, religious, or other types. If moral or ethical good is meant, it will be so designated. Similarly, evil is any kind of disvalue, not specifically moral evil alone.

242

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
There may be
intrinsic good, like
evil,

more complex.
or blasphemy. or instrumental

truth
5

or worship; and there

may

be intrinsic

like error

Likewise there
evils.

may

be instrumental goods
is

An

instrumental good

any exwhile an

perience, process, or entity

which contributes

to

producing

an

intrinsic

instrumental evil

good or to averting an is any experience,
Intrinsic

intrinsic evil;

process, or entity

which

contributes to producing an intrinsic evil or to averting an
intrinsic good.

goods are inherent, and nothing

can remove their goodness from them.
their

They
are

shine

by

own
into

light.

Similarly,

intrinsic

evils

inherent.

They them
evil
is

are disvalues in themselves
intrinsic

and nothing can make
good-and-

values.

But instrumental

relative to circumstances,

and the same instrument

may
is

serve either

good or

evil ends.

A

railroad train carry-

ing a saint like

Kagawa from San Francisco to New York an instrumental good, for Kagawa may be able to achieve

worthy ends in New York which would never be achieved he did not go there. The same railroad train may be, at the same time, an instrumental evil, for bandits may be traveling on it in order to produce both instrumental and intrinsic evil in New York or en route. Any solution of the problem of good-and-evil must take
if

account of instrumental each type of experience.

as well

as

of intrinsic aspects of

A

perfectly

optimistic

solution

of the problem, for example,

would have
good or

to include the

judgment
tial

that all apparently intrinsic evils are either essenare necessary

parts of the complete intrinsic

perfect

means

to the perfect

would

also include the
evils

end of intrinsic judgment that all apparently
instruments
to

and good; and it
in-

strumental

are

really

good.

Thus

extreme optimism would in the end leave nothing but intrinsic good together with instruments perfectly adapted
5

Involuntary error

is

an

intellectual evil;

voluntary error

is

a

moral

evil.

—
THE PROBLEM OF G OOD- AND-E VIL
to

243

achieving that good.

Perfect pessimism,

analogously,

would explain away both intrinsic and instrumental good and would leave only intrinsic evil and instruments perfectly adapted to achieving evil. It is hardly necessary to do more than to state these views in order to create the presumption that they are both unreal, and that both rest on a torturing of the actual facts. The solution, if one is possible, cannot be reached by an easy-going general formula. It must rest on an analysis of the evidence.
§
3.

Intrinsic Goods-and-Evils
classifying evils
evils.
is

The
moral

usual
evils

method of from natural

to distinguish

The former

are those con-

sequent on

Moral evil is what is known would include pain, disease, death, earthquakes, and tornadoes. But this classification is oversimple, and not always clear. It has been argued that some "moral" evil is due to a pressure of natural evils which man is not strong enough to resist, or that some natural
pendent of
will.

human human

volition,

whereas the

latter

are inde-

theologically as sin; natural evil

evils,

like earthquakes, could

be avoided by proper moral

choices, such as not building cities

on

sites like

Lisbon, Los
will

Angeles, or Tokyo.

A

more

careful

analysis

more

adequately reveal the complexity of intrinsic goods and
evils.

Reference to Chapter
of

III, § 3,

enables us to gain a survey

the

field.

Intrinsic

goods-and-evils

may

be classified

in accordance

with the table of values.
pains,

Just as there are

intrinsic bodily goods, so there are intrinsic bodily evils

for

instance,

experiences of deformity, or lack of

control of parts or the
are recreational

whole of the body

in paralysis.
evils,

goods and there are recreational
are the

There which

we

call vices, that are

both intrinsically and instrumentally

disvaluable.

There

goods of work and the cor-

244

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
evils

relative

of

laziness

and

inaction.

There are

social

goods and

social evils; the evils

may

consist in the sharing

of an intrinsic disvalue (such as ignorance or hate) or in an antisocial attitude such as egoism. There are goods of character and evils of character the former the acts of

—

and the latter the acts of an irrational will. There are aesthetic goods of the beautiful and the sublime, and aesthetic evils of the trivial, the vile, and the ridiculous. There are intellectual goods of insight into truth, and intellectual evils of ignorance and error. There are religious goods of worship and cooperation, and religious evils of irreverence and pride.
a rational will
It is

not always a simple matter, however, to determine
a particular

just

how

good or

evil

is

to be classified.
is

As

we have

already seen, the classification

not ultimate, and
rational

the only ultimate intrinsic value of value experience.

would be the

So, too, the only ultimate evil

whole would be

whatever contradicts or prevents the realization of the rational whole of good. For similar reasons, it is often
difficult to

judge whether an apparent good or
is

evil (a valueevil, either

claim or disvalue-claim)

a true

good or true

intrinsically or instrumentally.

In order to shed further light on the problem before
us,
let

us analyze evil as

we meet

it

in our experience,
is

(i) Every
less

human

being experiences a will that
is

more or
at

incoherent.

There

no one who does not
This incoherent will
"natural"

times

waver
a

in his choice of goods, at times break contracts or will
is

mutually exclusive ends.
opposition to
will

partly

"moral" and partly an inevitable
it

evil.

In

is

the actual good of a partially coherent

and the

ideal

good of
to

a perfectly coherent one.
all
is

(2) Equally ignorance; this

common
is

the intellectual evil of

partly a "moral" evil, in so far as

we

could well have

known what we do

not know, but preferred

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
not to

245

make

so far as
is

and it is partly a "natural" evil, in the ignorance was unavoidable. Any ignorance
the effort;

an

intrinsic evil,
is

but ignorance of the highest intrinsic

values

perhaps the worst

— and

most widespread
evil.

—type
both

of ignorance.

Ignorance of instrumental values
also

is

an

intrinsic

and

an instrumental

In contrast to

the evils of ignorance, and possibly conquering them, are
the goods of
(3)

knowledge and wisdom. Maladjustment is an intrinsic evil,
in

like
is
it

unintended

discords

music.

Social

maladjustment
completely
sets

one of the
can be over-

worst

evils of this type.
is

How

come

problematic.

Religion

up

as its ideal the

hope

of adjustment to the will of
(4) Incompetence
ability in
is

God.
evil;

another type of

the lack of

any individual to do what he undertakes to do. In the New Testament the Greek word dj-iagxia which
,

means missing the mark,
as

is

"sin."

Yet missing the

word usually translated mark is no evidence of a
the
It
is

morally
call a

evil or voluntarily
skill.
It

incoherent will.

evidence

only of a lack of

appears to be quite unjust to
is

person sinful because he

unskillful; but

it

is

not
evil.

unjust to describe an unskillful person as experiencing

The good
training
(5)
surd.

that overcomes incompetence
results in skill.

is

development or

which
fifth

A

type of evil

The

other types

may be called may sometimes

the dysteleological

be superseded by

internal development: an incoherent will
tively

may become

rela-

more coherent; ignorance may be enlightened; maladjustments may be overcome by proper relationships; and
incompetence
eological surd
6

may
6

be supplanted by
a type of evil
is

skill.
is

But a

dystel-

is

which

inherently and
numbers; so

A

surd in mathematics

a quantity not expressible in rational
is is

an evil that of good, no matter what operations are performed on it.

a surd in the realm of value experience

not expressible in terms

246

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL

irreducibly evil and contains within itself no principle of development or improvement. It is debatable whether there
are dysteleological surds;
it is

at least

conceivable that such

surds

may

exist.

Take, for example, the phenomenon of

imbecility.

Let us grant that imbecility
if it

may

encourage
in the in-

psychiatry and arouse pity; yet,
tion, there
trinsic

be an incurable condi-

remains in
his

it

a surd evil

embodied

worthlessness

of

the

imbecile's

existence

and the

suffering

which

existence

imposes on others.
then

Many

other possible instances of surd evil will occur to the reader.
If

there be any truly surd

evil,

it

is

not in any sense
it,

an instrumental good; good comes in
of
it.

spite of

not because not

A

good

man

or a

good God,

in the presence of surd

evil,

could only exercise control

—

self-control, in order

to be

overwhelmed by the evil, and objective control, in may not overwhelm all values. The problem of evil in its most acute form is the question whether there is surd evil and, if so, what its relation to value is.
order that the evil
§ 4.

Instrumental Goods-and-Evils
evils as

Instrumental

well as instrumental values
Intrinsic

may
It

be
all
is

classified as natural

and economic.

goods are

to

be found in the realm of personal consciousness.
existence of
a

hard to conceive what the objectivity of value (or ideals)

would mean other than the
ideal values.
It
is

superhuman

consciousness directed eternally toward the realization of

not so obvious that instrumental goods7

and-evils belong entirely in the sphere of consciousness.

What

is

obvious

is

that,

if

there

is

a

God

in control of
re-

cosmic processes, such a

God would
defines
is

be more clearly

sponsible for the operation of causal laws in nature than he
7

Although

a

personal

idealist

all

reality
self,

as

consisting

entirely
self,

of

selves, so

that nothing exists

which
this

not a

or an experience of a

or

an

interrelation

among

selves,

metaphysical question

may

be

left

in

abey-

ance for present purposes.

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
would be
trinsic
evil

247

for the freely chosen attitudes of

men toward
at

value experiences.

In other words, the experience of in-

may
But
if

with some show of reason be

least

partially

explained

by reference

to

man's abuse of his

freedom.
apart
sults,

there are causal processes in nature which,
intervention, lead to dysteleological re-

from human
then
it

is

impossible to avoid the question of God's

responsibility for evil.

Economic instrumental values involve human labor expended on natural objects or processes. It is plain that there are also many natural events which man can neither Such events are taking place coninitiate nor prevent. stantly in the heavenly bodies, in the climate, and in the
interior of the earth; in particular, all events in the history

of this planet prior to the existence of
class of events the responsibility for

man

belong in the

which must be traced These prehuman phenomena were instrumental to many forms of life and of consciousness. Instrumental good may be found in these phenomena in so far as they were part of the cause of the development of higher types of life and mind. But by a parity of reasoning instrumental evil must be ascribed to them in so far as they produced either intrinsic or instrumental
to causes other than

man.

evil.

Whether one considers the means or the ends of evolution, one must admit the presence of much evil, both intrinsic and instrumental. There is no evidence for the presence of any of the higher intrinsic values in the consciousness of the saurians. Their minds, activated by small brains, appear to have entertained no ends higher than the desire to win in the struggle for survival, and even that end was frustrated. The means used in the evolutionary process were wasteful and cruel in the extreme, and for many millions of years seem to have served no intrinsic value.

248

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
tar pits in

The famous La Brea
trate the suffering

Los Angeles, where mastoillus-

dons, saber-tooth tigers, and other animals perished,

and the

futility
all

which prevailed
this evil, there
life,

for long

ages in evolution.

Yet with

was law,
striving

movement toward higher forms
toward
values.

of

and gradual
is

Nature, past and present,

a

mixture of

instrumental good-and-evil.
§
5.

The

Religious Problem of Good-and-Evil

Religion has rarely sought to evade the problems of goodand-evil; rarely has
it

been a shallow optimism, facing only

life and neglecting its shadows Schopenhauer may not have been entirely wrong when he declared that neither religion nor philosophy would have arisen had it not been for the fact of death. Religion is not merely an enjoyment of good; it is a redemption from evil. The problem of good-and-evil comes to expression in religion (1) in the difficulty of believing good to be ultimate and (2) in the difficulty of achieving good. (1) So real are the evils of life, that man's first gods were puny, local creatures, sources of highly precarious goods in a world of hostile powers. The gods were restricted in their power by time and place, were at war with demons, witches, and hostile deities, and were themselves far from models of perfect goodness. The history of religious belief shows plainly the struggles through which man has gone before he has been able to believe in the good. For a long time, even the highest forms of religion held that the rule of the universe was not entirely under the control of good, but that it was a good-and-evil, an AhuraMazda and Ahriman, or a God and Satan. It is true that the intellectual difficulty of arriving at a coherent view of God if it must be assumed that he creates or tolerates a

the sunshine and joy of

and woes.

In

fact,

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD- AND-E VIL
Satan
is

249

so great that monotheists generally
belief in

have come to

abandon

any Devil or Satan.

But the negation

cosmos leaves the problem of good-and-evil even more acute than
of an incoherent, evil, Satanic personality in the
it

was; and the more coherent
cannot believe in

God

of today finds

many

who

him

at all.

It is

almost

as

hard for

modern man to believe good to be ultimate as it was for primitive man. (2) The difficulty of achieving good in a world of goodand-evil gives religion
its

chief task.
is

The

intellectual in-

terpretation of belief in

God

primarily a philosophical,

rather than a religious, enterprise.
tally practical, rather

Religion

is

fundamen-

than intellectual or even emotional.
is

become good or to do good in spite of all the evil in the world. Emotion plays a part in genuine religion as a means to the practical end, rather than as an end in itself. Religious believers have undergone disciplines, offered sacrifices, abandoned pleasures, toiled, and have suffered death itself, because of their hope that thus a real and permanent good might be achieved/ Worship is an effort of men to concentrate on the supreme worth of existence. Most religions offer a way of salvation or redemption which rescues them from the power of evil and guarantees the supremacy of good in their lives. The essence of religion is that the highest power in the universe is on the side of value in this age-long struggle between good and evil. Most religion presupposes the reality of evil as well as of good, and finds the cosmic forces in a real struggle. Even when evil is viewed as
of religious personalities
to

The aim

"maya,"
in itself

illusion, or error, the task of religion is to

banish

that illusion
is

and

to aid

men

in the struggle against
evil

it,

which

actual,

however

be interpreted.
is

The problem
8

of

religion,

then,
to the

the twofold one of

See the eleventh chapter of the Epistle

Hebrews.

250

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
good and achieving good in
is

believing

a

world in which

the intermixture of good-and-evil
perience.
§ 6.

a constant fact of ex-

Religion

is

a

form

of realistic action.

The

Philosophical Problem of Good-and-Evil

Thus

far in this chapter attention has

been centered on

the religious interest in good-and-evil.

It is

sometimes said
is

by unbelievers that the whole problem of good-and-evil an
is

artificial

one, created by the false premise that there
is

a

God.

In this assertion there
is

the obvious truth that

every item of evil in experience
belief in

God

than with atheism.
of good-and-evil

more inharmonious with Those who make the
a

assertion are nevertheless in error.

The problem
every

is

genuine problem for
of

philosophical

thinker

regardless

whether

that

thinker accepts or rejects religious faith or belief in God.
It
is

true that physicists, chemists, biologists, astronomers,
geologists, for example, find within their sciences

and
light

no

on

intrinsic

goods or

evils.

The

causal laws of these

sciences are, indeed, potential instrumental values; but so
far as the sciences are concerned these laws

instrumental

evils as

instrumental goods.

point of pure science they are neutral. point of experience, they are Janus-faced;
for education

may as well be From the standFrom the standthey may be used
The

or for crime, for peace or for war.

philosopher, however, cannot abstract
values.

must restrict his from the rest of experience. The philosopher must take all experience for his field and seek a unified view of the whole. Therefore the philosopher is bound to
scientist
field, abstracted

The

from all interest in problem to a special

include in his survey not only the results of the sciences but

problems which the sciences were compelled to omit. Conspicuous among these is the problem of good-and-evil.
also the

There

is

no doubt

that there are experiences of

what we

THE PROBLEM OF GO OD- AND-E VI L
regard
as

251

good and what we regard as evil. The philosopher must inquire into this whole area of value-disvalue in order to discover what truth, if any, it contains and how
it is

related to other aspects of existence.

A

philosophy which did not include an investigation of

would belie its name; it would not be so much a wisdom as a barren description of facts, and it would not be an account of the whole of experience. A philosophy which investigated value, but not disvalue, would be so partisan and one-sided as to lose its title to objectivity and
values love of

devotion to truth.

If a

philosopher will not bestir himself

into an investigation of the age-old

problem of

evil unless

he

is

prodded into
inclusiveness.

it

by the demands of his religious
is

faith,

he has but feeble

interest in a truly philosophical coherence

and
ence.

The problem

forced on the

mind by

the incoherence in the claims and counter-claims of experi-

The

goal of philosophy

is

a

coherent hypothesis

which

will include

and explain

all

the theses and antitheses
is

of experience.

The

philosopher's unpardonable sin

in-

difference toward any area of experience, especially

when

that area contains such incoherences as does the battle-field

of good-and-evil. values

Without consideration of values and disno one can hope to find more than a distorted frag-

ment

of truth.
§ 7.

The

Dialectic of Desire

examine our experience of value or good it sheds on our view of experience as a whole. This problem has been adumbrated here and there in Chapters III, IV, VI, and VII. Now for the first time it is taken up in a systematic way. It seems fruitful to approach this investigation from the standpoint of dialectic. By dialectic is meant the mind's
First, then, let us

with a view to discovering what light

252

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
No mind can Everyone must
start

search for completeness and coherence.

with the attainment of wholeness.
starting point
this thesis,

start

with his present fragmentary and changing experience. This
is

called the thesis.
relate
it

he must

to

he is to understand something else, contrasted
If
is

with

it,

yet

relevant
is

to

it;

this

called

the

antithesis.

Thinking, however,
posites.
It
is

more than mere

contrasting of opinter-

an understanding of their productive

relation.

This understanding leads to a

new

insight,

known
opposi-

as the synthesis,

which

in turn gives rise to a

new
is

tion or contrast, until the

whole of experience

compre-

hended in philosophical insight. Value experience is properly called the dialectic of desire, because the simplest form of good or value is always a
desire striving for fulfillment.
a desire.

Every value-claim
If

is

such

True value would be

a fully coherent fulfilled

desire for a fully coherent object.

such a desire
9

is

found,

we may

suspect ourselves of being near the truth.

(i) Desire for pleasure (enjoying).

Desire must be for

something.

The
is

thesis

of desire

points to

an antithesis
reflection

which

is

desired.

The most

obvious and universal object

of naive desire

pleasure (antithesis).

But

on

pleasure shows that
in
a
it; J. S.

we make
shown

qualitative

discriminations

Mill

10

has

that

we

prefer the pleasure of

man

to the pleasure of a pig because

we

find the former
are held
a desire

qualitatively superior.
to be

As soon as some pleasures more important than others, we experience
all

to assure ourselves of the sources of such pleasures.

While
experi-

pleasures are held to be

of a kind, any

random

ence might afford satisfaction; but

when

qualitative differ-

ences are recognized, the uncertainty of fulfillment of desire
9

becomes

clearer.
Aristotle, "is the object of appetite,

"The apparent good," says good is the primary object of
point."
10 In

and the

real

rational wish.

.

.

.

The
.

thinking

is

the starting-

Met.

Lambda

" (XII), Chap. VII, 1072 a26 29

Utilitarianism.

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
Out
of desire for pleasure

253

(mere enjoying), thoughtfully understood, there thus arises a synthesis, which is the desire for objective grounds of the permanence of pleasurequalities. Since the simplest ground for such permanence lies in the possession of physical things, thought about
value effects a transition to the second stage.
(2) Desire for physical things

(having).

As soon

as

on the desire for physical things, we find ourselves haunted by their unsatisfactoriness. Mere possession of things is no guarantee of pleasure or of fulfillment of desire. Things are not desired for their own sake, anyway, but for what they will produce; we perceive that they will produce no satisfactory values of themselves. Hence they

we

reflect

are not a coherent object or standard of value. to be secured, things

If

value

is

Out
desire

of desire

must be used, acted on, dealt with. for physical things (mere having), there
the insight that fulfillment of
active transactions

arises in the reflective
is

mind more dependent on

with things
of
desire

than on the things themselves.
thus effects a transition to
its

The

dialectic

third stage.

Without activity, there no value; no perception without apperception, no fulfillment without effort, no value without the search for value.
(3) Desire for activity (doing).
is

This (pragmatic)
experience.

thesis

is

an inevitable
however,
is

moment
for

of value

Mere
had

activity,

not necessarily valu-

able or desire-fulfilling.
just as desire
is

Activity

must be

some end,

to be first of all for pleasure.

What

then
other

the simplest and nearest antithesis
activity

— the
a

end for which

our

strives?

Primarily,

it

is

relation to

persons, a social relation.

Accordingly, the desire for activity (doing) has given
to the desire for association

rise

with others, and herewith a

transition

is

effected to the fourth stage of the dialectic.

is

(4) Desire for other persons (sharing). When valuation raised to the social level, it undergoes an expansion as

254

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
as

well

and

association

an elevation. with

The
others,

consciousness
the
desire

of
for

respect

for

experiences

shared with others, the sublime experience of love, contribute to a richer

nature of our desires.

and more coherent understanding of the Yet, as we found earlier in our

discussion of social values, the thesis of desire for other

persons engenders an antithesis, in the desire for a standard

by which to judge other persons and shared experiences
as

carriers of value.

Desire

is

not rationally satisfied by

mere

association with another person or

by mere sharing,

unless a value worth imparting enters into the social experience.
is

It is

necessary, but not sufficient, to say that value

social sharing.

The

antithesis, the desire for a standard,

must be considered.

A

new

synthesis emerges

from
is

this situation,

namely the

truth that shared experience
ideals.

a progressive realization of
11

Unless our relations to others and our desires for a
social values

standard were judged and fulfilled by ideals,

would be

irrational.

Thus

arises a transition to the fifth

stage of the dialectic.

(5) Desire for ideals (planning).

In the desire for ideals,

on every stage of the dialectic, as enjoying, as having, as doing, and as sharing, the climax of the dialectic and the solution of the problem of good might seem to be reached. No great thinker of past or present, from Plato to Kant, from Hegel to Dewey, fails to acknowledge that ideals embody our need for truth and for insight into
carried out

standards.

The lower
ideals.
is

stages

of

the
all

dialectic

things, activity,

and persons

—are

—pleasure,
and are

relative

to

judged by
ideals.

Yet there

something peculiarly unsatisfactory about Hegel often called attention to the weakness and Value
is
Ill

emptiness of a mere ideal that was not realized.
11 See

Brightman, POI, Chap.

in particular.

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD- AND-E VIL
not achieved merely because
a true one.

255

Value

arises

we acknowledge an ideal, even only when the ideal is fulfilled.
it.

Thus

there arises the fundamental question, whether the
is

universe

such that our ideals can be realized in

The
until

dialectic of desire has not

reached

its

consummation

the thesis of the ideal and the antithesis of the real are

brought together in realized
lated instances, this synthesis

ideals, actual values.

In

iso-

may
this

obviously be accomplished

on the

level of activity.

But

humanistic and practical
confront the antinomy of

solution leaves untouched the deeper question of the relations of ideals to existence.

We

the ideal.

Our

experience of the ideal,

if it

means anything, means

that ideals are not only superindividual, but also supersocial.
Ideals, that
societies are
is,

are standards

by which both individuals and
our experience of desire
be valid, ideals must in some

judged.
is

The

thesis of

for the ideal

that, in order to
all

sense

lie

beyond
ideals

human

personalities as their objective
is

goal and judge.
antithesis:

But this can be

thesis

opposed

at

once by an

real

only as the concepts

and

acknowledged purposes of minds.
personality of ideals can
for all persons.
objective;
yet the

The

notion of the im-

mean

concretely only their validity
tells

The

thesis

us that ideals

must be

antithesis

tells

us that they cannot be

external to persons.
drives thought
desire finds

The

conflict of thesis

with antithesis

clared that

which the dialectic of the solution Saint Augustine found when he dethe soul is restless until it finds rest in God.
on
to a synthesis, in
is

The
tion

synthesis, therefore,

the insight that true value

is

an objective union of ideal and personality.
of

The

concep-

Supreme Person, guiding the universe by its ideals, is the coherent and inclusive interpretation of the whole range of value experience. Thus we move to the
a
sixth stage of the dialectic.

256

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
Supreme Person (worshiping and
co-

(6) Desire for the

operating).

Logical thought about value experience thus

points to the

same object that religious worshipers have found a supreme person in whom supreme good is acknowledged and actualized. Weh^grounded belief in

—

such a person affords a coherent account of the objectivity of ideals implied by value experience, and it offers reasons for
the religious faith in a personal God.
Satisfactory as this

reason and of religious faith,

outcome may be to the demands of it must be scrutinized critically
Certain aspects
leads to belief in
First, the dialectic

before being either accepted or rejected.
of the conception of the dialectic

which

a personal

God need
The God

to

be

made
and

clearer.

deals only with the spiritual

logical aspects of value exis

perience.

of the final synthesis
is

a

conscious,

spiritual person.

Nothing

yet said about physical organ-

isms or the system of nature

— except
is

that physical things

are not a rational object of value.

Secondly, the dialectic

shows that
it is

desire or valuation

a search for

God

only

when

subjected to interpretation by reflective reason.

Thirdly,

the previous point shows that

no present insight, short of all-inclusive knowledge and wisdom, can be regarded as In other words, the fact final truth about the mind of God. that the Supreme Person is the climax of the dialectic of desire is no warrant for supposing that thought may cease, once it has found God. God is an object for inexhaustible
exploration.

Fourthly, the dialectic reveals the inadequacy

of any view of religion or of
passive

God which makes man

merely

and dependent.

In so far as a transcendent Bar-

thian deity utters revelations which reason cannot grasp
or define, such a
intelligible

value.
all

God places himself outside the The dialectic is compatible
rational value experience
is

realm of
with
the

postulate that

a revelation
parts,

of the spirit of the

whole working

in the

humblest

a

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
immanent and
transcendent
revelatory.
utterly
It is

257

incompatible with a purely
all

God

above and beyond

reason.

Fifthly, the dialectic shows that

driven to objectivity and truth
to

we are the more surely when we are more loyal
find
is

our best

selves.

Not by Thus

divesting ourselves of reason

the highest

human

values do

we

and God, but by rigorous

loyalty to them.
creativity;

objectivity

consistent with

human

and the methods of humanism and naturalism, drive the mind beyond those positions. Sixthly, it needs to be pointed out that neither religion nor philosophy is satisfied by mere acknowledgment or asserReligion requires the develoption of a Cosmic Personality. ment of values through worship of God and cooperation
taken seriously,

with him.
the
religion

Philosophy requires the

critical

exploration of

the

meaning of God and his relations to the world. Both and philosophy imply that what we value is not mere existence of God as an abstract fact, but rather the

concrete implication of that fact.

The

dialectic of desire

presupposes as a religious and a philosophical foundation
the actual empirical situation of each

human

individual.
is

What

individual

human

persons rationally desire

not

alone the fact that a Divine Person exists, but also that the
ideals of the

Divine Person shall become constitutive
all

life

principles for

persons in the total cosmic society.

Thus
theism, neither

away from atheism and toward not toward pantheism or deism. Socially, it means
the dialectic points

anarchism nor a totalitarian
society

state,

but organic pluralism

—

of

free

persons

seeking a rational and valuable

common
(7)
sire,

purpose grounded in God, the objective principle
the dialectic of de-

of worthful cooperation.

Grounds
is

of dissatisfaction.

Is

thus explained, thoroughly satisfactory?
to

To
for

ask this

question

answer

it

in the negative.
its

It is

emotionally
rational

unsatisfactory partly

because of

demand

258

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
Exalted emotional and mystical

thought and discipline.
a time rise above

experiences of worship are, indeed, states in which
all

men

for

their dissatisfactions into absolute peace

and

joy.

Human

defects

are transcended

and forgotten.
be emotion-

In this sense, the outcome of the dialectic
ally satisfactory;

may

but the very

moment

of greatest satisfac-

tion

may

be a dogmatic ignoring of

thus the highest emotional satisfaction
it

human defects and may contain within
There
is

both ethical and intellectual dissatisfaction.

ethical dissatisfaction for everyone

who

believes in
all

cause of the incompleteness and inadequacy of

God behuman co-

operation with God.

There

is

intellectual

dissatisfaction

because of the incompleteness of our knowledge and the
insufficiency of

our proofs;

this

dissatisfaction,

however,

and is the plague of honest atheists, agnostics, humanists, and pantheists, as well as of honest theists. In fact, the emotional and the ethical disinheres in the
situation
satisfactions
intellectual.

human

of

religion

share

this

universality

with the

Every possible point of view that the mind
its

can assume toward

life

of feeling an,d will, as well as

toward its thinking, is haunted by its own incompleteness what Hegel calls "the seriousness of the negative." But

method of the dialectic. The dialectic is precisely a dialectic of desire, that is, of the movement from value-claims to true value. It is the
avoidable incompleteness of the

anatomy of good.
of
evil.
Its

It

omits the plain and inevitable fact
is

procedure in so doing

not unlike that of the
seen,

natural sciences which, as

we have

omit the entire

Such abstractions are necessary devices if human thought is to make any headway; but they must be recognized for what they are namely the result of deliberately incomplete thinking. C. Delisle Burns has
experience of good-and-evil.

—

said that "abstraction

is

logical forgetfulness or the art of

forgetting;

and

it

is

not misleading unless you forget that
14

you have forgotten."

It

is

not misleading to forget evil
it

temporarily while examining good; yet

would be most

misleading to give forth the results of an examination of

good as truth about the whole of experience, forgetting evil and forgetting that it had been forgotten. Until evil has been examined, all conclusions about good remain insecure. The problem of evil is ineluctable.
§ 8.

Current Solutions of the Problem of Evil Examined
is

There

of good; for

no dialectic of evil corresponding good is inherently rational and

to the dialectic
evil

inherently

nonrational.
of meaning.

Good
Evil

is

a principle of totality, of coherence,

is

a principle of fragmentariness, of in-

coherence, of mockery.
in evil; evil
is
is

Hence
evil,

there

is

no immanent

logic

the Satan that laughs at logic.

Yet there
less logical

logic in

thought about

and many more or

14 C. Delisle Burns,

The Contact Between Minds (London: Macmillan and

Co.,

Ltd., 1923),

3.

,

260

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
problem of
evil

solutions of the

have been proposed.

Those

briefly stated

most often discussed in the modern world will now be 10 and criticized. (i) Moral evils may be explained as a result of human freedom. Much weight may be granted to this argument. The objection of Kant, Vatke, and Bosanquet that it is

—

contradictory to suppose that

God
I6

(or any reality) could

create the wills of free beings without creating at the

same

time

all

the details of their willing

— appears to be a

priori,

human imagination rather than to a violation of reason. Surely a human being can make a machine without determining how it shall be used; it would seem extraordinary if a God could not create a free will. Such a view limits God arbitrarily. Nevertheless, human freedom leaves many aspects of evil, even of
unempirical, and to refer to a defect of

moral

evil,

unexplained.

Why

are there in the nature of

things, independent of

human

choice, so

and allurements to sequences of some
disastrous?
utterances
that
It
is

evil

choices?

many temptations And why are the condebasing

evil

choices so utterly
to

and

very hard

reconcile
facts.

some

religious

on temptation with the
is

Saint Paul says

"God

faithful,

who
1 '

will not suffer

above that ye are
physiological,

able.

(i Cor. 10:13.)

you to be tempted Yet the pressure,
to

psychological,

and
Is
it

social,

men, women, and children
servers to be unendurable.
sins

are subjected seems to

which some most obof the

just to ascribe all

and

vices of poverty-stricken refugees or

unemployed

families to their

own

freedom, or even to

all

human freedom
Versuche

15 Kant's little

pamphlet, Ueber das Misslingen

aller philosophischen

in der Theodicee (1791) (On the Failure of all Philosophical Essays in Theodicy) raises fundamental problems. Leibniz's Essais de Theodicee (1710) is a classic
in the field, to

which Voltaire's Candide (1756) 16 See Kant's Religion within the Limits of

is

a biting answer.

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
put together?
readily to explain too

261

The tendency to use human freedom too much is exemplified by the writer of the Epistle of James, when he denied that God tempts man, asserting "each man is tempted when he is drawn away by

his

own

lust,

and enticed" (James

1

114)

— as
it

actually created his
peat, explains

own
of

sexual nature.
evil,

if man's freedom Freedom, we re-

much

moral

but

does not explain

either the force of temptation or the debasing consequences

of moral evil. (2)

Nonmoral

evils are

sometimes viewed
is

as a

punish-

ment
and

for moral evils.

This view
'

not logically impossible

is

widely held.

1

Yet

it

is

repugnant to the ethical

sense of

modern
Shall

idealists.

Even criminology has repudiated
Does
it

the motive of punishment in favor of the reformation of the
criminal.
perfect
a

good God harbor resentment?
?

love punish
evils,

Further, the unjust distribution of

nonmoral
affords

both intrinsic and instrumental, makes
a very

impossible to suppose that any consistent desire to punish

an explanation of more than

few

evils.

This

crude theory of punishment was rejected by the writer of
the

book of Job and by
believers
is

Jesus (according to Jn. 9:3).

It

can
of

be maintained only by supposing (like some Theosophists

and
evils

in

Indian religions)
1S

that the

incidence

punishment for sins (now unknown committed in a previous incarnation (equally unknown). To say nothing of the highly speculative character
a perfectly just
to us)

of this theory,

it

remains exposed to
of

all

the ethical objections

against
17

the

idea
of

punishment.
1938,
to be divine

The whole

theory

of

The hurricane

September 21,

half-seriously held by

many

unworthy candidate in local political of this view overlooked the fact that devastation in Rhode Island and Connecticut, without similar justification. 18 If Theosophists argue that they do not hold to punishment but only to Karma, a law of cause and effect, they have then no explanation of why that
law should
entail so

in Massachusetts, was more than punishment for the nomination of an primaries on the previous day. Holders it afforded no explanation of the worse

much

suffering.

262

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
as a solution of the

punishment
its

problem of

evil collapses of

own

weight.
if

(3) Notimoral evils,
disciplinary.
to
elicit

not penal,

may

be regarded as

Their purpose is then to reform or to test, or "rugged individualism" or social responsibility,

rather than to allot sufferings in accordance with deserts.
It

cannot well be denied that

many

apparent

evils (disvalue-

claims)

turn out to be goods in disguise

(true values).

Hardship often develops character. A community disaster often elicits cooperation and a sense of human brotherhood. Many noble spirits dwell in crippled and diseased
bodies.

Suffering teaches sympathy.

No

observer of

life

has failed to perceive the growth of courage and purpose
in the experience of

some victims

of hard fate.

Then

shall

we "welcome each rebuff that turns earth's smoothness rough"? Browning's thought seems almost to be that the normal state of affairs is smoothness and that a little roughness is welcome for variety's sake. Such a picture is too unrealistic to need an answer. It disregards the facts. In truth, the whole theory of evil as disciplinary falls far short
of being philosophically adequate, even
its

when

it

is

held in

best
it.

form and not

in

Browning's unintentional caricature
the facts

of

Philosophy seeks for an explanation that

fits all

and is contradicted by none. If we by this criterion, what do we find ?
evil facts are

test

the theory before us
that sometimes

We find

experienced as actually leading to nobler and
also
facts

more spiritual living; more frequently evil

that

sometimes
to

—

—and

perhaps
re-

lead

more and more

and hopeless living. Life and literature abound in instances which need not be cited. We find that the good itself sometimes has the evil effect of inflaming passion or resentment in an evil man. Defenders of the disciplinary view, however, retort that these facts do
sentful, debased, depressed,

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD- AND-E VIL
not
a

263

show

a lack of disciplinary intent

on God's

part, or

even
the

lack

of

wisdom,

justice,

or

power, but

indicate

presence of a misuse of freedom by
disciplinary opportunities.

man

in the face of

Criticism of the view
discipline
is

the purpose of
just,

nipotent and
least

must therefore probe deeper. If all evil, and God is both omthen disciplinary evils should meet at
First,

two

conditions.

they should appear wherever
Secondly,
It
is

they are needed and only where they are needed.
clear that neither of these conditions
evils fail to

they should be perfectly adapted to their ideal end.
is

met.

Disciplinary

appear for the moral education of the world's

worst characters; and the innocent and already overdisciplined victims of these very characters receive repeated
superfluous and unjust disciplines.

Even

if

all

evils

were
one

wisely and justly disciplinary and none were wasted unjustly,
the second condition

would remain
evils

unsatisfied.

When

contemplates the actual

of a wild storm at sea, the

experiences of freezing and starving, or the
syphilis or arteriosclerosis,
it

symptoms of would appear most extrava-

gant to assert not only that these experiences
disciplinary, but also that they are the
to the ideal

may

be

most perfect means

ends of personal and social development that

an

infinitely

good and powerful imagination could deexplanation of
evil,

vise.

As

a philosophical
entails
its

the appeal
it

to discipline

incoherences so far-reaching that
It

cannot serve
probable, that

purpose.
evils are

remains possible, and even

many
all

intended to serve a disciplinary

end.

Perhaps
is

are; but a rational

and good disciplinary
to the ends

end

very far from accounting for the empirical character

of the evils

and

their frequent

maladjustment

they are supposed to serve.

The

three theories thus far discussed are the ones most

frequently alleged by theologians.

We

have found reason

264

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
punishment, while recogniz-

to reject entirely the theory of

ing some truth in the appeals to freedom and discipline.

But neither freedom nor discipline nor the two together
approach a complete or coherent account of actual
evil.

We turn now to
(4) Evil,
ists
it

other theories, which have

more often been
Absolute ideal-

advanced by philosophers than by theologians.
is

said, is

incomplete good.

Hegel have dwelt on the principle that the true is the whole, that a partial view of anything is inadequate and irrational, and that the whole alone is truly good. A few propositions from an argument seem almost meaningless Many until their relation to the whole proof is grasped.
like

patches of color within a painting are ugly; but the entire

painting
until
its

is

beautiful.

Ditch-digging might seem worthless
is

contribution to civilization

perceived.

An

opera-

might be judged evil before convalescence and recovery had set in. This argument from synoptic logic has real Yet it is cogent only if we know in advance that force. every whole is necessarily good, or that this is true of the
tion

universe as a whole.

From

incompleteness alone, the goodIn fact,
it

ness of the complete cannot be derived.
true in

is

as

some

cases to say that
is

good

is

incomplete

evil as to

say that evil
in a person

incomplete good.
is

The

joys of intoxication

who

forming the habit of drunkenness
is

are

intrinsic goods,

but they are incomplete; the whole pattern
these goods are a part,
evil.

of

life,

of

which

The

ex-

treme optimism of certain tubercular patients

as

death nears

may be

merciful, but

it is

only one

symptom

of the approach-

ing end.

Satan

is

commonly
The

pictured as intelligent, gentletraits are

manly, and industrious; yet these good
parts of an evil whole.
is

subordinate

question of whether the whole
settled

good or
the

evil

must therefore be
to

on other grounds
Moreover, even
all evils

than the incompleteness of our experience.
if

whole could be proved

be good, and

there-

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD- AND-E VI L
fore instrumental goods, there
tion of

265

why

the perfect

would still remain the queswhole had to contain both intrinsic

and instrumental evils. After all, is there any reason why our world should not be Plato's "perfect whole of perfect 19 if the whole is perfect in all respects ? parts," "Perfect parts," of course, would not mean complete parts, but parts perfectly contributing to the perfection of the whole. Over
against this ideal
is

the chaos of empirical evils

we

confront.

this theory, it must be granted that To complete understanding requires a view of the whole; but

proponents of

it

cannot be granted that
itself

this principle of synoptic

method

sheds any light of
evil

on whether the whole is good or from the standpoint of any humanly intelligible mean-

ing of the terms.
(5)

Some

adherents to the foregoing theory, as well as
it,

some who do not hold

advance the idea that

evil is

needed

monotonous world, it is held, were good, no one would appreciate the goodness; perhaps no one could even define it if there were nothing by way of contrast. Consciousness, for example, we sometimes possess; we can appreciate and
as a contrast to good.

A

would be wearisome; and

if all

identify

(if

not define)
is

it

only because

we

often lose
it

it

and

(if

immortality

not true) shall one day lose

per-

manently.

But

should never
too,
trast

were continuously conscious, we if we know what consciousness really means. So,
with
evil.

good and

is

in perpetual

conflict

danger of being lost by its conThis alone teaches us to apnot easy to appraise.

preciate

its

value.

The amount
There
is

of truth in this view

is

surely a great variety of goods;

and the

diversity, the

effort, and the development inherent in experiences of the good might possibly give a sufficient contrast effect. Is it necessary to visit a hospital in order to enjoy life? Does
19

Tim.

3

2D.

266

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EViL
visit

such a

enhance the value of

life ?

It is

true that Prince

Siddartha was a

selfish Sybarite until

he witnessed poverty
in-

and

disease, old

age and death; but might not a soul
of
life
is

nocent of the

evils

still
it

have become a Buddha?

To

ask a crude question,

necessary to eat or even to

see a rotten apple in order to eat a

good one with
is

satisfac-

tion?

The

theory of contrast-effect

not wholly

false, for

the contrasts of experience often do stimulate the good;

the conflict between thesis and antithesis drives us on to
a synthesis, as
less, as

we saw

in the dialectic of desire.
it

Nevertheis

a plain empirical fact

would appear
is

that there

far

more sand

in the Sahara than
soil;

needed
as

to

help farmers

value their fertile

there
is

is

far

more ignorance and
an
effective contrast
is

misery in the world than
to

needed

wisdom and

health.

In short, there

too

much

evil

for the purpose of contrast to good.
to explain or justify a large

Contrast-effect fails

number

of evils.
evils, as

(6)
as

It

is

sometimes argued that nonmoral
result of

well
20

moral ones, are a

freedom.
evil.

In a criticism of

the present writer's position, Professor D. C. Macintosh

has given his account of the origin of
part the abiding effect of the past

He
it

regards the
as "in large

universe as "the body of God," and views

wor\

to a limited extent his present creative

God, and only work" (305). In
of

general, then, the universe

is

due

to acts of divine creative

freedom, no matter
think that some
in the

when
is

they occurred.

He

appears to
in

relief

found

in

viewing

evils

the

physicochemical order as due to an act of divine freedom

remote past ("past creative

activity," 305) instead of

being "the immediate product of a
conscious will of

new

creative act of the

God"

(306).

Why

of a free act or the instrument used
20

he regards the date by it as important in
Religion in Life,

"What

has Professor Brightman done to Personalism?"

1(1932), 304-307.

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
fixing responsibility
is

267

unclear; after
it

all

"he

who
evils

does a

thing through another does
sor

himself."

Logically Profesall
is,

Macintosh leaves the responsibility for

in in-

organic nature on the lap of the gods
of

—that

in the will

God. This simply states, but does not solve, the problem. However, he does offer a partial solution in the suggestion that many evils in the natural order may be due to "an expression of the free creativity with which the divine Creator originally endowed life even in its most primordial and rudimentary forms." (306) How far down into the structure of matter this libertarian panpsychism is supposed We need only state that the to go, we need not speculate. same objections are valid against Professor Macintosh's appeal to freedom to explain nonmoral evils as were urged against that appeal as an explanation of moral evils. The misuse of freedom does not relieve God of responsibility for having placed in his creation the possibility of so many direly cruel and unjust consequences of the misuse of freedom. It may be added also that the more free beings are multiplied in the universe, the more logical need there is for some unifying, coordinating principle of totality, some
Absolute or

God
M.
this

as

the responsible unifier of the order.
a personal pluralIf

Although

J.

E.

McTaggart maintains

ism despite

argument, Macintosh holds to a God.

he does, he cannot deny
universal freedom entails.

God

a greater share of responsi-

bility for the structure of the universe

than

this

theory of
it

At any

rate,
is

evidence for
limited even

is

meager and
be true.
(7)
far as

its utility,

as

we have

seen,

if it

Even though

certain evils
it

may

be intrinsic surds so

man

is

concerned,

may

be that those very evils are

needed

in the universe as instruments to beings other than

men.

This speculation opens possible perspectives
It

as

a

rebuke to anthropocentric dogmatists.

may

be true that

268

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
x's,

our "evils" are necessary to the good of a race of invisible

and unknown
slightest

angels, departed spirits, or beings utterly

inconceivable to us.

But

this

is

a

"may be" without
possibilities,

the

ground
cries

in experience or concrete reason.

Why
when
21

multiply hypotheses, playing with mere
the
actual
us,

aloud for attention and explanation
clarity

?

Let

however, for the sake of

waive

all

objections

and grant the supposition that all human evils are instrumental goods for superhuman or subhuman beings. In that case, we should have a perfect whole but of very imperfect parts. For the question would still remain: Why must man suffer so much meaningless evil in order to achieve the good of alien and unknown beings ? Why must humanity be fuel to the fire that warms the hands of another race? Even if man knew of the service that he was performing, could he consider such an arrangement as ideally

—

just?

Would

his personality not

then be regarded, in so

far as the surd evils are concerned, "as a

means

only,"

and

not as an end in

itself?

At
if

best,

such an order could be
of the beings

deemed

ethically just only
his
ills

man knew

whose
that

existence

were enriching and consented

to

Even then, perfect justice would hardly obtain which (for some reason not stated in the explanation) required cancer, imbecility, and earthquakes in human experience in order that "angels" might enjoy goodness, truth, and beauty. As the most remote speculative refuge, 22 this theory, although seriously advanced by some able men, is only a makeshift. It offers no metaphysics and no ethics evil, and builds its superstructure on the foundation of of
enrichment.
in an order

our ignorance.
but
it

This foundation

may

be said to be broad,

cannot be called firm.

21 Nicolai

&

Co., 1938)
22 It

Hartmann's Moglichkjeit and Wiriklichheit (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter is a searching criticism of overemphasis on mere possibility. has been briefly suggested by F. J. McConnell.

—
THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
(8)
269

The

theory just discussed often takes a more general

form

in the proposition that all evils

—-intrinsic

or instru-

mental
solution

serve an

tion of the

unknown good. unknown angels just

This avoids the invendiscussed and leaves the

where an agnostic would wish to have it left in unknown. It postulates the presence of evidence for a good God analogous to the evidence for causality— and infers that what seemingly conflicts with that evidence will some day be explained, just as we shall some day find the cause of events which we are now totally unable to exthe

—

—

plain.

23

Here, again,

we may

grant the conceivability of

the suggestion.
it

Yet, like the appeal to the

unknown

angels,

rests

on insecure foundations.
objections to the proposition rest
evil

The two main
its

confusion of good and

ignorance.
that
if

before

By (a) its we must wait for the revelation we decide that an apparent evil is a

on (a) and (b) the irrelevance of confusion of good and evil is meant

should be consistent enough to
grant that, in the present state of

unknown then we go the whole way and our knowledge, we canof the
real evil,
is

not assert that any given experience

either

good or

evil.

The two
able.
24

are, in

our ignorance, confusedly indistinguish-

If

present evil
that present

may

be incomplete good,

how do

we know

these considerations

good is not incomplete evil ? Or, if seem far-fetched (as indeed they are) and we decide that it is reasonable to act on the hypothesis
is it

that certain experiences are good,
to act

not equally reasonable

on the hypothesis that some are evil? If it be argued that we know moral good and evil (with certainty),
This argument has an ad hominem force for the present writer, since he held to this view himself. Compare Brightman, ITP, 292-293, with Knudson's statement in DR, 208-209 an^ the reference to Lotze on 220. Nevertheless, the objections to
it

23

once

now seem
(b),

decisive.
to

24 This

and objection

below, are both related
is

the

argument above

against the current solution described as (4) Evil

incomplete good.

270

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
evil,

but not "natural" good or

there arises the question:
is

By what
one

logic?

If

complete knowledge of the whole

necessary to a knowledge of the parts in the case of the

—the
it.

natural evil

the moral?

True,

account; yet
find

—why not in the case of the other, we must always take the whole into we must also interpret the evidence as we
is

Faith

needed for any hypothesis, but
leads

faith needs

a firmer

foundation than a desire for absolute perfection.

If a logical

method

guishable, then that
of the

good and evil to become indistinmethod cannot be used for a solution

problem of

evil.

(b)

"The

irrelevance of ignorance"

means

that our igbelief.

norance cannot be used to support any particular

Granted our ignorance, then

all

assertions

condition are subject to the same defects.

made From
it.

in

this
ig-

our

norance alone nothing whatever follows about the unknown,
except the tautology that

we do
in
spite

not

know
it,

Our

ig-

norance

is

no reason

for taking apparent evils to be real
If,

or incomplete goods.
in good, this belief
is

of

we

still

believe

justified

by logic and by logic or
greet the

fact present

and

implicit in our experience, not

fact of

which

we

are totally ignorant.
it

If

we

unknown with

a cheer,

must be for

reasons, not for lack of them.

which justifies all evil as good is the view, held by some Hindus and by Christian Scientists, that evil is unreal. It is "maya" or
(9) In sharp contrast with the view
illusion;
it

is

"error of mortal mind."

Evil

is

neither a

disguised intrinsic good nor an instrumental good.

The
This

judgment
view
is is

that
it

it

is

real

is

simply a false judgment; the

opinion that

is

objective or

permanent

is

an
if

error.

subject to three
it

criticisms.

First:

the natural

order in so far as
to

seems

evil is nonexistent, the

next step

deny the existence of the natural order

as

good.

If

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
all

271

nature

is

illusory,
left
if

"one grand eternal
error,

25

lie,"

there

is

no

good reason
Second: even

for believing anything to be
evil
is

objective.

the error exists in
as if
it

human

consciousness and does as

much harm

were

objective.

Third:

how
is

the error could arise in a supposedly perfect

universe

not explained.

(10) There remains as a solution of the problem of evil

most popular among nontheistic and nonnamely, the view that good and evil are the outcome of processes or entities which are axiologically 26 According to this hypothesis, beyond human (or neutral. animal) conscious experience there is neither good nor evil
the one

which

is

idealistic thinkers,

To be exact, all intrinsic value or disvalue is found in human or subhuman conscious experience; while natural processes may be instruments either to our
in the universe.

values or our disvalues, this instrumental

good or

evil

is

a

purely accidental attribute of nature.
trinsic

Likewise, the in-

goods and

evils of

consciousness are purely accidental

products of an order which (apart from the narrow realm
of consciousness) contains
evils,

no

intrinsic

goods nor

intrinsic

and neither intends nor implies anything valuable or It is held by many that this way "around," instead of "through," the problem of evil shows that the whole problem is artificial and unreal. The problem is thus solved by being evaded, and the conclusion is that, in the cosmic causes of value experience, nothing is good and
disvaluable.

nothing
2o

is

evil; as far as those causes are
is

concerned,

vile-

The phrase

quoted from a

now

inaccessible

poem by

a Christian Scientist

is defended by Ralph Barton Perry in Present Philosophical Tendand The Present Conflict of Ideals; by most naturalists, such as John Dewey and Roy Wood Sellars (Samuel Alexander is an exception, and Dewey sometimes inclines toward a certain belief in the objectivity of ideals), and by the logical positivists (see Ayer, LTL). All who deny both God and the objectivity of any ideals or values are forced to this position.

(about 1900). 26 This view

encies

—
272

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
is

ness

just as valuable as beauty, sin as valuable as character,

error as valuable as truth.

Value
it

resides only in conscious-

ness, as a sort of miracle, created out of

nothing (there

is

no

objective value

from which

can be created) and vanishing

If experiences of value and disvalue were not actual facts and were mere speculations, this explanation might suffice as an exposure of human illusions. It has been called "a philosophy of disillusionment." But it consists in offering no explanation at all for the most

again into nothing.

:

characteristic facts of

human

history

and

culture.

It

com-

bines the marvels of Melchizedek

with those of Topsy;

without father or mother in the entire universe, good and
evil

"just

growed."

This explanation

may

be a passing
its

phase of an age of doubt which fears to face

own
its

ulti-

mate problems.
cerity.

It

is

the least coherent of

all

interpreta-

tions of good-and-evil, although

commendable

for

sin-

§

9.

The Trilemma

of Religion

This chapter began with the proposition that belief in God raises the problem of good-and-evil (§ 1), but went

on

to

show

that the

problem must

arise for

that faces the facts of experience

(§6).

An

any philosophy argument for

the objectivity of ideals, called the dialectic of desire

(§7) was followed by an analysis of proposed solutions of the problem of evil, which revealed difficulties in all current ideas on the subject, and showed the most popular views
the naturalistic, positivistic, or realistic views of a neutral

cosmos

—to be

the least satisfactory of

all.

By

this

time the reader

may

be willing to surrender to

skepticism out of sheer weariness; yet no one

who

tires

of

thinking will find truth.
27

By Ralph Barton Perry.

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
Let
us
therefore
orient

273

ourselves

regarding the stage
in order that
it

which our investigation has reached,

may

proceed in the clear light of the logic of experience.
are seeking a philosophical interpretation of religion.

We
Such

an interpretation entails an account of good-and-evil not merely of each taken separately nor of a practical attitude

—

toward each, but of good and
in

evil

in their relations

to

each other, to experience as a whole, and to the total reality

which our experience roots. The history of religion and The of thought places two alternatives before thought. that first alternative is that between theism and nontheism is, between an ultimate personalism and an ultimate impersonalism. The dialectic of desire and most of the attempts to deal with the problem of evil point to an ultimate

—

personalism.
positivistic
tral

But the attempt

—

realistic

or naturalistic or

—to

explain evil as a result of axiologically neu-

processes or entities in the cosmos points to ultimate

impersonalism.

The

inability of

any such theory

to

cope

with the problemsTdf value and disvalue has just been shown.
~Yet there are those
restricts us to a

who

believe that

human knowledge
Holders of
8

universe divested of value.

this

view affirm that science alone gives us knowledge, but that
science gives

no knowledge about

values."

What

science

enables us to

know

is

a

physicochemical order with no
It
is

properties but physicochemical ones.

admitted that

value experiences exist;
sue. scientific

it

is

denied that

we can have any
all

knowledge about them; and

surely

would agree
29

t ^that values are not

objects of physicochemical investigation.

The
is

point that holders of this scientific neutralism

overlook
science

that philosophy has to face the problems

which

leaves unsolved.
28 So Russell, RS,
29

To

call the

problem of good-and-evil an

and Ayer, LTL.
is

Neutralism: the view that objective reality

neutral as regards value, being

neither

good nor

evil.

274

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
problem
is

artificial

to fly in the face of the facts of daily ex-

perience as well as of the
Nevertheless, there are

demands

of coherence.

many who

think that scientific

neutralism

is

as far as

thought can go.

Of

these, the great

majority, in spite of their metaphysical views, are actually
loyal to ethical, logical,

and

aesthetic ideals,

and many find

values in the religious experiences of the race.
nontheistic position
ticism,
is
is

When

the

chosen, with
still

its

neutralism or agnosof agnostic
as

and

religion
is

prized,

some form
Religion
is

Jjumanism
loyalty to

usually the outcome.
values,
is

human

viewed and the origin of those values
left

in
as-

the objective universe
serted inconsistently.

denied or

unexplained or

On

the other hand,

if

the theistic choice

is

made, there

remains a further alternative from the standpoint of the

problem of good-and-evil. It may be called the choice between theistic absolutism and theistic finitism. The former is the Thomistic and Calvinistic and generally accepted view: that there is a personal God who is eternal, and infinite in power and knowledge as well as in goodness. 30 The latter view also defines God as personal and eternal, and infinitely good, but denies the infinity of his power and perhaps of his knowledge. Since the solution of the problem of evil turns largely on the relations between power and goodness in God, the next chapter will be chiefly devoted to the alternative of theistic absolutism and theistic finitism. Previous discussions have shown the defects of pantheism and idealistic

absolutism.

31

At
it is

all

times, however, the reader should

bear in

mind

that
:

not merely a dilemma that

we

face,

but a trilemma agnostic humanism,
theistic finitism

theistic absolutism,
if

and

must

all

be faced; and
it

lemma
30 This 31

there

is

a better possibility,
its

too

beyond this trimust be pursued.

view has found

best recent exposition in of this chapter.

Knudson, DG.

Note

especially § 8, (4)

and (5)

THE PROBLEM OF GOOD-AND-EVIL
Bibliographical

275

Note
is,

The

great masterpiece on the problem of good-and-evil

of

course, the
Plato's

book of
classic

Job.

treatment

is

well

expounded

in

Demos's

POP (1939),

as

is

Saint Augustine's in Burton, POE(i909), and

German of Lempp, PT(i9io). The recent literature has not contributed much that is new. One of the best philosophical discussions is Tsanoff, NE(i93i). A mystic's view appears in Hinton, MP(i866, 1914). The characteristic thought of H. G. Wells comes to expression in his
Leibniz's in the

UF(i9i9).

A

popular Christian view appears in E.

S.

Jones,

CHS(i 933 ).

NINE
THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM

AND
§
i.

FINITISM

Summary

of Possible Solutions of the Problem of

Good-and-Evil

HE
ter
all

goal of Chapter VIII was an analysis of the

experiences of good-and-evil.

The

goal of Chap-

IX

is

a synopsis

which includes and explains
Good, on the one

of the facts revealed in the previous analysis.

That

analysis leaves matters undecided.

hand, leads to a

dialectic of desire that finds coherent culEvil,

mination only in a personal God.

on the other hand,
of,

reveals the presence of an irreducible surd (an intrinsic evil)

which

a

good God seemingly could not approve

much

less create.

In the presence of these conflicting analyses, thought has

taken one of four possible courses (or some combination of

them)

:

(i) neutralism (existence

is

neutral to value;

all

at least

some

—

—or

reality

is

unconcerned with either good or
it

evil; the universe or a part of

is

indifferent to value or
is

disvalue

—

it

is

wertfrei); (2) optimism (existence
is

deter-

supreme and every apparent evil is either unreal or is instrumental to good) (3) pessimism (existence is determined by disvalue; evil is supreme and every apparent good is either unreal or is instrumental to evil) and (4) meliorism (existence is partially controlled by value in some sense both good and evil are real, but good is
value; good
;
; ;

mined by

276

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
dominant
in that

277

the state of affairs in the universe

is

always susceptible of improvement).

The
nor

objection to neutralism

is

that

it

explains neither good

evil,

but leaves them as miraculous mysteries.
is

The
is

objection to optimism
of intrinsic surd evil.
it is

that

it is

not fair to the experience
that

The

objection to pessimism

not fair to the experience of intrinsic good.

The

objec-

tion often

urged against meliorism
a practical attitude

is

that

it

states the

prob-

lem and takes
solve
it

toward

it,

but does not
it

in principle.

Yet

if

any solution

is

to be found,

must, in view of the fatal objections to other alternatives, be

found

in

some form
§ 2.

of meliorism.

The

Issues at

Stake

It

may

clarify the

problem
is is

to state explicitly certain under-

lying issues in question form.
if

These

issues

must be faced
of the

progress toward truth

to be

made.

The aim

statement of these issues

to determine, if possible,

what

thought

is

seeking

of good-and-evil.

when it proposes a solution to the problem What sort of answer would satisfy the

terms of the problem?

Are good-and-evil to be explained away? Would it solve the problem if it could be shown that both good and evil are "merely subjective," and that everything objective is neutral? The answer to this question must be in the negative. Even if good-and-evil be strictly subjective, a solution of the problem must show the reason why such subjective experiences occur. Nothing can be experienced subjectively which does not have some relation to and some
(1)
basis in objective reality.
error.
It

an explanation overlooks the possibility that purpose may control the universe without having produced everything

and that purpose may order the whole in spite of the Even the writer of the J document in Genesis knew that nature is not perfect but is, now at least, under a curse (Gn. 3:14-18); he suffered from no optimistic hallucination. To prove that all evil a perfectly good creation of a perfectly good is really good purpose is to destroy every ground for a distinction between good and evil, and thus eventually undermine logic, ethics, and religion. Yet it is true that this self-defeating paradox showing that all evil is really good has been the aim of 2 the predominant traditions of religious thought. (3) Is a coherent account of the evil of evil and the good Let us suppose that thought of good an adequate solution? cannot show all evil to be really good. Is there, then, no solution of the problem of good-and-evil ? Some, among
in
it,

presence of genuinely evil parts.

—

—

—

—

them
to

the present writer, think that a rational definition of

the evil of evil

purpose in

good of good and of their relations the universe would be a genuine solution of
of the

and

the problem, the only kind of solution
expect.

we

could reasonably
a search for just

The
it

present chapter

is

in the

main

such a solution.
say that
is

Critics of this

no more than

a restatement of the

kind of solution frequently problem;
solution unless evil

but in saying that they appear to be appealing once again
to the

principle

which admits no

is

2

Most

religious

thinkers distinguish between

moral

evil

(or

sin)

and non-

moral (or natural) evil. The latter they ascribe to God and usually declare to be ultimately good. No one, of course, would say that moral evil is intrinsically good; yet the majority would hold that its presence in the universe is justified because without the possibility of evil will there would be no possibility of good will. Thus even sin is a factor in a good world, and it is good that sin is
possible.

2 8o

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
to be good.

shown

Defenders of the proposed solution reply

that our desires for a spotless perfection in the universe can-

not by themselves determine the truth; no desire can rightly
say, "Evil,

be thou good."

;

All that rational thought can

do
is

is

to face the facts
is

and then give an account of them

that

all-inclusive

done, an explanation

and coherently systematic. When this is reached that needs no further exis

planation.

Explanation

needed, not

when
is

reality

runs

counter to our desires, but only

when

there

contradiction

or incoherence between our theories
theories are supposed to describe.

and the Reason

facts

faces facts

which our and

describes
facts as
reality.
If

them coherently;

rationalization tries to see the

our desires dictate, uncriticized by the dialectic of
unsatisfactory,

neutralism

is

and

if

pessimism builds

its

view on the
meliorism.

irrational aspects of experience, then the philosto

opher of religion has

decide

between optimism and

Concretely, this choice usually appears as the

alternative: theistic absolutism or theistic finitism.
§
3.

Theistic Absolutism

vs.

Theistic Finitism

is always more complex than any statement about and religion is richer than all theory. Hasty solutions of religious problems are easy ways of avoiding hard thinking and of escaping the many-sided divine reality. Nothing that has been said hitherto should be taken as closing any question or preventing any new exploration. The arguments may have been incomplete or in some way inadequate. The reader and the author are engaged in a common adventure in thought and experience in which agreement is far less important than the love of truth and the search for a method. The worst fate of a thinker happens when he

Reality

it;

3

Although

this is

obviously on a higher level than the Satanic original, "Evil,

be thou

my

good."

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
says,

281

"Now
is

I

see

it

all;

the

problem

is

solved;

no more

thought
dies
It

needed."

At

that

moment,

obviously, the thinker

and
is

rises as a

dogmatist.
define exactly the issue that separates

difficult

to

theistic absolutists
if

from

theistic finitists,

but

it

can be done

we "sterilize our intellectual instruments," as Bowne said. The investigator will not be deterred by Calvin's veto: "Cold and frivolous are the speculations of those who employ
themselves in disquisitions on the essence of God"; nor will

he cease inquiries because that essence
hensible."
either
4

is

called "incompreat
all,

If

we

are to speak of

God

mean something

or be totally silent.

If

we must we think

the divine essence to be truly and wholly incomprehensible

and deem those frivolous who inquire about it, we ought not to say God, but should speak only of "The Incomprehensible which it is frivolous to try to comprehend." That any reality has ever been fully comprehended is doubtful; perhaps none ever will be. Yet the moment we cease to try to comprehend, that moment the intellect petrifies, the spark of life dies out, and the spirit is no longer open to truth. Calvin was a great man and a great thinker, not because he declared

God
all

to be incomprehensible, but because

he struggled with

his intellect to

comprehend what was
all

revealed to his understanding about God.

Attempts
ter

to define

God,

as

we saw

too clearly in

Chap-

V, have led to a variety of contradictory conceptions; yet

critical reflection

on these and

their relations to experience

has eliminated some and modified others, until the investigation of good-and-evil has confronted us with the choice be-

tween theistic absolutism and theistic finitism. The two forms of theism agree in the proposition that God is an eternal, conscious spirit, whose will is unfailingly good. The difference between the two may best be brought out by
4 Calvin, Institutes,

Bk.

I,

Chap.

II,

ii;

and Bk.

I,

Chap. XI,

iii.

282

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
faces
is the view that the will of no conditions within the divine experience which

saying that theistic absolutism

God
that

will

did not create

(or at least

approve), whereas

theistic finitism is the

opposing view, namely, that the will

of

God

does face conditions within divine experience which
a paradoxical antithesis in reliis

that will neither created nor approves.

These two views
gious experience.

reflect

On

the one hand, religion
5

an assertion

of an ideal of perfection.
to explain evil
is

It is

in the interests of this ideal

surd evil

away, and to ascribe the supposition that there to our ignorance. The faith of religion from

this point of
still

that God "saw that it was good" and working together for good in a perfect harmony regulated by his will. Matter, as divine activity, and freedom, as divine creation, are perfect products of the perfect will of God.

view

is

sees all things

On

the other hand, religion

is

an assertion of the need
this point of view, the

of salvation

from

real evil.

From

world as it is is not good. Obviously sin is a real evil. But the maladjustments in physical nature are real evils, too; most great religious leaders have either been (like Jesus)
healers of disease or (like

Buddha)
is

teachers of

escape

from the

evil effects of disease.
is

In this

some way of mood, the

religious teaching
illustration of the

that matter

inferior to spirit

— an acute
is

paradox of
of

religion.

For

if

matter
of

the
all-

unadulterated

expression
it is

the

perfect
it

will

an

powerful God,
inferior to free

strange that

should be regarded
then, far

as

and

sinful

man who

never expresses perfectly

his divine vocation.

from minimizing evil, paint it all the blacker. Spirit must be saved from matter, "this body of death"; the whole order of time is somehow corrupt and inferior to the perfection of eternity.
Religious
spirits,

imperfections of the creation as to raise questions about the
perfection of the creator.
Theistic absolutism expresses the

former mood,

theistic finitism the latter.

Both are rooted

in the realities of religious experience.

The contrast between the two is akin to the contrast between philosophy and religion. Philosophy starts with the whole field of existing experience; religion starts with its eye on value. The philosopher asks Is the existent valuable ? The religionist asks: Is the valuable (V) existent (E) ? For philosophy, the problem reads: Given E, is there V?
:

For religion
is

it

reads Given V,

is

there

E? E

for philosophy

the existence of experience; for religion

it is

the existence

of God.
is

Both problems are legitimate and no philosophy
it

complete until
It is

has given

full

weight to the religious

problem.
ceived,

evident, however, that philosophy, thus conlikely to incline

would be more

toward a

finite

while religion would incline toward an absolute one.
the paradox of religion and the differences

God, Yet
this

of approach

among

philosophers (empirical

vs. rationalistic)

make

distinction only a

rough and provocative analogy rather than

a precise distinction.
§
4.

Historical Sketch of Theistic Absolutism

In order to understand man's struggles for truth about
it will be fruitful to examine few of the most decisive historical expressions of the two competing views. Since absolutism is more widely known than finitism, it may be treated more briefly. The historical root of theistic absolutism is to be found

the fate of value in his universe,
a

in Aristotle,

whom

Saint

Thomas

called

"The Philosopher,"
of scholasticlassic

and whose thought has dominated the history
cism since the thirteenth century.

The

statement of

284

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
6

Aristotle's personalistic absolutism

is

found

in the magnif-

icent passage in

Book Lambda (XII) Chapter VII, from which Hegel quotes

of the Metaphysics,
at the

climax of his
7

Encyclopedic
It is

Let Aristotle speak for himself:

a life such as the best
. .

which we enjoy, and enjoy but
is

for a

short time

.,

since
is

its

actuality
is

also pleasure.
best.

.

.

.

of contemplation
is

what

most pleasant and
this

If,

The act then, God
are,

always in that good state in which compels our wonder; and if in a better,

we sometimes
compels
it

this

yet more.

And life also belongs to God; for and God is that actuality; and God's self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal. We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God; for this is God. Those who suppose, as the Pythagoreans and Speusippus do, that supreme beauty and goodness are not present in the beginAnd God
is

in a better state.
is life

the actuality of thought

ning

.

.

.

are

wrong

in their opinion

.

.

.

for the first thing

is

not seed, but the complete being. There is a substance which is eternal and unmovable and separate from sensible things. This substance cannot have
. . .

any magnitude, but is without parts and impassive and unalterable.

indivisible.

...

It is

This sublime prose

poem

defines an absolute, self-sufficient,

and complete deity
Aristotle

— an

actus purus

8

of eternal goodness.

may

be said to have written the history of theistic
9

absolutism, for the idea has experienced no important modification
6

from

that day to this.
of Fuller in

In the nature of the case,
God cannot
not

The statement
personal,
rests

HP,

I,

151, that Aristotle's
definition

be viewed
current
in

as

on some

esoteric

of

personality

philosophy.
7

In Ross's translation, excerpts from Met.

8

"Pure actuality"
all

—

God
9

possibilities

io72 bl4-i073 a12 have become actual. In of thought are perfected as complete pleasure and complete
.

a being in

which

all

potentialities

value.

God

There have, of course, been numerous changes in defining the relation of to the world (and to Christ); but there has been no important alteration
this tradition

within

regarding the concept of divine absoluteness.

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
further development of so climactic an idea
is

285

impossible.

The concept
could
"nulla
est

of such a being could no
10

more change than

God himself.

"In deo," wrote Saint

Thomas Aquinas,
intelligence.

potentialitas."

God

is

infinite

and Thomas it is inconceivable that the will For of God should confront any conditions in which that will was not already perfectly and eternally fulfilled. References to Thomas in the work of an eminent theologian like KnudAristotle

Bowne Americanizes the thirteenth century when he "God can do only the doable." Knudson specifies
God's power
reality."
is
13

says

that

this restriction of

traceable to "limitations

within the structure of

Thus, even the absolute

God

is,

in a sense, limited; but not in
will.

any such way

as to

thwart or divert or hamper his
10 "In

potentiality." That is, he is his essence, and his essence no admixture of anything else. See Summa contra Gentiles, Lib. I, Chaps. XXI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX, and also XLIII. Consult Robert Leet Patterson, The Conception of God in the Philosophy of Aquinas (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1933). For a modern specialized study, see J. K. Mozley, The Impassibility of God (Cambridge: University Press, 1926). 11 It is fitting and respectful to refer to this distinguished, ancient view as traditional theism. That it has enjoyed a long tradition proves nothing for or

God

there

is

no

is

eternal goodness, with

against its truth. 12 "There can be

no

will of

God

regarding those things which are inherently
I, Cap. LXXXIV. "There are," he Note Leibniz's concept of the best of

tism began with his teacher, Plato.
difference in the history of the
lutism, like logic

But there

is

a

marked

unchanged
of a finite

in

its

two concepts. Theistic absoand mathematics, has remained virtually fundamental principles; whereas the idea

God

has experienced almost as
itself.

many

changes

as

has empirical science

Before beginning an account of the history of finitism, two
conceptions should be excluded from consideration as not

belonging
limitation.

strictly

under
the

theistic finitism.

The

first is

limi-

and the second is divine selfwe have already seen that Saint Thomas grants that God cannot do the inherently impossible. Although logical possibility is thus recognized as a limit on divine will and thus becomes a barrier to literal absoluteness, it is so universally recognized by adherents of theistic absolutism as to constitute no special contribution
tations of logical possibility

As

to

first,

of finitism.
in

14

As

to the second,
will,

it

is

clear that

if

any sense a good

he

is

a self-limited will.

God be The will
and the
kind are
is
it

to be good, the will to create other free persons,

will to entertain an eternal purpose of
all

any

specific

instances of self-limitation.

But such self-limitation
will.

perfectly consistent with the principle of absolutism, for
is

an expression of God's all-powerful

A

limitation

14 Its purely formal character comes to expression in the work by William King, Archbishop of Dublin, Concerning the Origin of Evil (Cambridge: William Thurlbourn, (1731) 1739. He undertakes to show that evil necessarily follows
if

an omnipotent

being to be

God is to made perfect.

be rational.

It is

impossible, he holds, for a created
is

rational, for the

The "universal war" among animals weaker were made "on purpose to afford aliment to

perfectly

the others"

(184-185).

Evil could not be avoided without a contradiction (220), partly be-

God had to create out of nothing, which is imperfect (217)! The inadequacy of such abstractions to explain the concrete evils of existence is patent. The Archbishop is a poor exhibit for the absolutist tradition.
cause the perfect

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
would
of his
side as

287

constitute

were not a product will. Leaving, then, these two conceptions to one belonging properly to traditional theism, let us proas finite only if
it

God

ceed to trace the history of finitism.

There

is

a

fundamental reason
10

why

Plato should regard

God
finite

as finite.

In the Philebus he discusses at length the
infinite.

and the
to

He

holds that these two elements
But,

(23C) are
infinite;

be found everywhere in the universe.

contrary to our
it

inspires in

modern mood, he feels no awe before the him only confusion. Goodness and
in-finite, the

beauty are not to be found in the
definite, the limitless

un-limited; on
is

the contrary, they exist only where the indefinite
is

made

limited.

Socrates says that a divinity,

beholding the violence and universal wickedness which prevailed, since there was no limit of pleasures or of indulgence in them,
established law

did harm;

I

say,

and order, which contain a on the contrary, she brought
it

limit.

You
16

say she

salvation.

As

Socrates puts

a

little later, it is

"the infinite
life."

bound by
Thus,
infinity
all

the finite" (27D) that creates "the victorious

meaning, goodness, and order are limitations on
the finite.
Plato's doctrine
is

by

akin to Saint Thomas's ad-

mission that the infinite
differs
as

God

cannot do the impossible, yet

from
is

such

by the fundamental principle that infinity not admirable or sublime. It is not even good
it
it.

unless there are limits to

The

rejection of
If

mere

infinity as divine prepares us for
infinite,
at

Plato's dualism.

God were

be regarded as all-inclusive, or
15

least

he would have to as the ground of
fail to

No

student of Plato's philosophy of religion should
as Religious Realist," in Macintosh,

The commentaries by Taylor and Cornford
essay

are illuminating.

read the Timaeus. Robert L. Calhoun's
is

on "Plato

RR, 195-251,

an invaluable

survey of the

field.

Since this section was written, Raphael Demos's book,

The

Philosophy of Plato, has appeared, which supports the view taken in the text. 16 Phil. 26BC, translated by H. N. Fowler in the Loeb Classical Library edition (published by the Harvard University Press).
•

288

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
is.

everything that

Plato, profoundly concerned about the

problem of good-and-evil, puts into the mouth of Socrates
the principle that

"God

is

not the cause of
1T

all

things, but

only of the good things."
in the

This
is

is

explained more fully

Timaeus, where divinity
all,

represented, not as omnipo-

good God who desires good and nothing evil" (30A). So far as possible! His will, then, did not create the conditions under which it worked, but "took over all that was visible, seeing that it was not in a state of rest, but in a state of discordant and disorderly motion," and "he
tent creator of

but simply

as a

"that, so far as possible, all things should be

brought

it

into order out of disorder."

1S

Plato's picture of

God

is

now

before us.

God

is

a will for

good, not infinite but

on the one hand by rational principles of order and control {Philebus) and on the other by "discordant and disorderly motion" {Timaeus) which he finds in existence. All human life is an "undying battle," requiring "wondrous watchfulness," in which gods and daemons give us aid. {Laws, 906A) God's will, in this battle, confronts limits of reason and limits set by the uncreated discordant and disorderly (infinite) aspects of being. But Plato's ultimate metaphysics remains unsatisfactory and disunified, because both the principles of reason and the disorderly infinite seem to be external to God. Thus Plato
finite,

limited

preserves the goodness of

God

at

the cost of metaphysical

coherence.

Plato seems to have believed that axiological

coherence was more important than cosmological coherence;
if

he could not

say,

with Lotze,

many

centuries later, "I seek
19

he which should be the ground of that which is," could at least say that what should be is ruler over what is,
in that
17

profound yet incompletely unified insight seems have been ignored by most of his readers. The Timaeus

was almost the only work of Plato that survived continuously throughout the "Dark" and Middle Ages; but it was
doubtless read through the blue glasses of the absolutistic
interpretations of the Neo-Platonists,

insight into Plato's real meaning.

which prevented any However, Epicurus (341-

270

b.c.)

had no such excuse

for ignoring Plato's solution.

Yet Epicurus presented thought with a pointed alternative:

God
and
is

either wishes to take
is

away

evils,

and

is

unable; or he
feeble,

is
is

able,

unwilling; or he

is

neither willing nor able, or he
is
.

both

willing

he is willing and is unable, he not in accordance with the character of God.
able.
If
. .

and

which

1>0

Thus Epicurus
as
evils.
lies
is

considers

and

rejects the idea of a finite

God
at all

being too "feeble"; he concludes that

God

is

indifferent to

But since the only reason for believing in

God

in the evidence of our experience of good-and-evil, there

far

more reason

for believing in a finite

God
is

than in an

indifferent one.

Good Father
guns and

Lactantius, however, stands

by

his absolutist
evils,

asserts that

God

able to take

away

"but he does not wish to do so."

that evils discipline our

His point is wisdom, and without them "we

should not be a rational animal."

On

the other hand, Epi-

curus solved the problem of the conflict between omnipotence and benevolence by rejecting both; at
different
least, if his in-

and nonbenevolent gods are omnipotent, there is no reason to assign that attribute to them and no occasion for them to exercise it. In a roundabout way, then, he re20 Cited

by Lactantius

(fl.

a.d.

313) in

A

Treatise on the

Anger

of

God, Chap.

XIII.

290

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM

God (a good one) in the interest of another kind of finite God (a morally neutral one). The rise of Christianity made the problem of the relation between goodness and power in God far more acute than it
jected one kind of finite

could have been for the dignified Epicurus and his gods,

who

asked no more than to be

left

alone with their pleasures.

Jesus taught that goodness

and
is

sacrificial love

were

at the

very center of divine character, but he proposed no metaphysical theory.
Saint Paul

more

interested in explaining
is

matter ("this body of death") than
offers

Jesus,

but he, in turn,

no systematic theory. During its second century, Christianity developed some bold and sincere, but untrained and sadly muddled, thinkers called Gnostics, of whom 21 Marcion (a.d. 85-159) was the most striking. Marcion was impressed by the glaring contrast between the Old Testament's God of Battles and the New Testament's loving Heavenly Father. Another contrast fascinated him that between matter and spirit. Faced with the good teachings of Jesus, which he accepted in the form they assumed in the Gospel of Luke, and with the good-and-evil facts of history and the physical world, Marcion concluded that the power for good in the world must be finite. He proposed a most extraordinary solution, a tour de force if ever there was one. There are, he taught, three fundamental powers in the universe: (1) the loving Heavenly Father, revealed by Christ

—

but

unknown

previously

—perfect in goodness, yet limited in

power by the other two environing forces; (2) a realm of 22 evil matter (an echo of the Timaeus?) ruled by the devil; from this Marcion deduced ascetic practices, including prohibition of marriage; and (3) the God of the Hebrew Old
21 The classic treatment of this thinker is in the fascinating volume by Adolf Harnack, Marcion: das Evangelium vom jremden Gott (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1924). It is worth while to learn German, if only for the sake provided one has human or historical or religious interest. of reading this book 22 Clement of Alexandria compares Marcion with Plato in Stromata, III, 4, 25.

—

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
Testament,

291

world out of the devil's matter, and is finite not only in power but also in goodness, as is evidenced by the cruelty of his commands. Marcion's view need not detain us long. It is obviously mythical and incoherent; but it is a serious attempt to give an account of the place of both good and evil in the Cosmos. He wished "to justify the ways of God to man," and made
(like a Platonic

who

Demiurge)

23

forms

a

what is unjustifiable cannot be one of the ways of God. He was far from the flat optimism of Alexander Pope's "Whatever is, is right." He took sides against the neutralists, the optimists, and the pessimists, and allied himself with the meliorists. For this
his foundation stone the principle that

he merits praise despite his aberrations.

Another more

erratic genius contributed to the history of

finite God. He was named Mani (a.d. Manes, and his followers were called Mani215-276) or chaeans. His doctrines were a mingling of Babylonian, Per-

thought about the

sian,

Buddhist, Greek, and Christian ideas, but were closer

to those of Zoroaster

than of anyone
as

else,

although they are
treated
as

sometimes

classified

Gnostic.

Mani was

a

For a time (a.d. 373-382) the great Augustine was a Manichaean. Our information about Mani has until recently been chiefly derived from Mohammedan writers. Now some genuine 24 documents of the faith are available. Mani's solution of the problem of good-and-evil was less complex than Marcion's. It was dualistic, as Zoroaster's had been. The universe is an eternal struggle between the force
heretic both
23

by Zoroastrians and by Christians.

"Demiurge"

is

a

word meaning

artisan;
it

one

who

shapes the world out of

pre-existing matter, rather than creating
24 See A. V.

out of nothing.

Williams Jackson, Researches in Manichaeism

(New York: Colum-

bia University Press,

derived.
Phil. Rev.,

1932), from which source the main facts in the text are Henry Neumann's article, "Manichaean Tendencies in Philosophy" in

28(1919), 491-510,

is

instructive.

292

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM

and the force of darkness, that is, between spirit and The realm of light and spirit was presided over by the good Father God, and the realm of darkness and matter was presided over by a diabolical Ahriman. The eternal history of the universe is that of a struggle between these two powers, which Mani elaborated in fantastic detail. For us, the main point is that God is not the creator of matter, but rather its enemy; the good God is limited by conThe human body ditions external and abhorrent to him. is a prison for soul and light and is created by the devil. The It is the task of God to free the soul from this prison. Manichaean metaphysics is chaotic, but it represents an effort to face the realities of good-and-evil with a mind untrammeled by fetters of tradition or logic. When Boethius (a.d. 475-524) brought the classic tradiof light

matter.

—

tion to a close in his

De

Consolatione Philosophiae, the prob-

lem
. .

was still recalcitrant. "Si quidem deus est, unde mala? The Bona vero unde, si non est?" solution that God is good but not omnipotent seemed not to
of good-and-evil
.

occur to him.
Passing over profound insights into a struggle within God,
expressed by mystics like Jakob

Boehme

(1575-1624),

we

note that the learned, half-skeptical, secular

mind

of Pierre

Bayle (1647-1706) was frequently occupied with the prob-

lem of

evil.

He was greatly

influenced by

Mani and

to

some

extent by Marcion.

His thoughts were expressed in his amazing Dictionaire historique et critique, one of the first encyclopaedias and amply provided with footnotes, documentation, and appendices. The first edition appeared in 1697, the second in 1702, followed by numerous others. Articles in the first edition on Manichaeans, Paulicians (Armenian Christian Manichaeans), Zoroaster, Xenophanes,
25 "If there
is

is

a

God, whence come
I,

evils?

But whence come goods,

if

there

none?"

De

Con.!. Phil.,

105-106.

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
and Marcionites manifested
heretics so

293

much sympathy with
authorities.
26

the

(heightened in the second edition) as to draw a
ecclesiastical

rebuke from the

that the doctrine of predestination held both

Bayle argued by the Catholic

Augustine and the Protestant Calvin logically made
the seat of the evil principle as well as of the good.

God
this

To

he preferred Manichaean dualism; he therefore viewed history as a conflict between the good God and the bad one (the devil). He looked on the devil as "superior in the
battle,"

since

a great of

saved.

The power

many more are damned than are the good God is, for Bayle, so finite
one soul in a million.

as to avail for the salvation of barely

Bayle concluded, tongue in cheek, that the only

way

to

cope

with the Manichees was to exalt faith and abase reason.

The

idea of a finite

God

appears also in the thought of

David Hume (1711-1776). In Part V of the Dialogues 2T Concerning Natural Religion (1779), Philo analyzes the arguments of Cleanthes, who has deduced God from the facts of nature, and declares that Cleanthes must "renounce
all

claim to infinity in any of the attributes of the Deity,"

adding that
and the under our cognisance, is not infinite; what pretensions have we, upon your suppositions, to ascribe that attribute to the divine Being?
effect, so far as it falls

the cause ought only to be proportioned to the effect,

Philo finds the whole view of Cleanthes too anthropomorphic, yet does not
26 See the section

examine the evidence
in

closely.

Like Bayle

on "Original Sin"

Howard

Robinson, Bayle the S\eptic
to

(New York: Columbia
sion in the text
27
is

University Press,

1931), 206-215,

which the

discus-

indebted.
in

Norman Kemp Smith

his edition of the

Dialogues identifies Philo with

Hume

himself, although most previous interpreters, following a hint by

Hume
is

(at

the end of Part XII) had taken Cleanthes for the true
closer to the skeptical spirit of

Hume.

Philo

certainly

Hume

than

is

Cleanthes.

294

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
in cheek, appealed to faith, so Philo, tongue in

who, tongue

cheek, appeals

from the

finite

God

to the absolute one.

There are many inexplicable difficulties in the works of nature, which, if we allow a perfect Author to be proved a priori, are easily
solved.

Again, in Part X, where the problem of suffering
ered, Philo defends the incomprehensibility of

is

considagainst

God
up

"the anthropomorphites," and appeals twice to the old argu-

ment
that

of Epicurus.
is

In Part XI, Cleanthes takes

the idea

God

"finitely perfect."

Philo, however, answers that

there can be

no grounds
are so

for an inference to divine goodness

"while
plays

there
for
a

many

ills

in

the

universe."
belief,
is

He
then

moment with

the

Manichaean
all

concludes that "the original source of
indifferent to all these principles,"

things

entirely

and thus takes his stand noteworthy that Hume in these Dialogues considers good and evil separately, but never treats the joint problem of good-and-evil. His exwith Epicurus and neutralism.
It is

clusively analytic

method blinded him to a Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), with Plato,

synoptic view.
Aristotle,

and

Hegel, one of the world's greatest thinkers, contributes to
the idea of a finite

God

only in an indirect way.

In the

course of his famous refutation of the traditional proofs of

God

in the Critique of

Pure Reason, he
argument.
28

(like

Hume

and

others)

expressed highest respect for the teleological (or

"physico-theological")
ever, that
it

He

complains,

how-

does not prove a "world-creator, to whose idea
subjected," but at

everything

is

most

a "world-architect,

who

would always be greatly limited by the suitability of the stuff with which he works." It is odd to have a great mind
2S See

Chap. VII,

§

6,

above.

The

passage from

Kant

is

in

the

Critique,

A62 7 (B6 5 5).

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM

295

admit that the evidence points to a finite God, yet decline This evasion can be explained to consider the conception.
only by the a priori grip which the idea of theistic absolut29 ism had on his mind because of the ontological argument.

From

the time of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) on, the

idea of theistic finitism has

adherents.

In Mill's

had an increasing number of posthumous Three Essays on Religion
is

(1874), he comes to the conclusion (not publicly stated dur-

ing his lifetime) that "there
in favor of creation

a large balance of probability

by intelligence" (174).

But he main-

tains that all evidence for design, for the use of

means

to

attain ends,

is

"evidence against the Omnipotence of the

Designer" (176).

Therefore "the author of the Kosmos

worked under
self to

limitations"

and "was obliged

to adapt

him-

conditions independent of his will" (177). Those conditions Mill takes to be provided by the eternal and uncreated factors, "Matter and Force" (178).
tion

The whole secon "Attributes" (176-195) is a strong argument for the finiteness of God, and against any Manichaean dualism
(185).

Mill

is

able to render probable the goodness of
is

God

(191) because he

not "incumbered with the necessity of

admitting the omnipotence of the Creator" (186). The arguments of Mill are sometimes discounted by believers on
the ground that he stood outside of religious traditions and

lacked a Christian experience; yet this very fact makes his
to others to be the more objective and conAt any rate, Mill would not have to be asked, as Voltaire was by Rousseau: "Why do you wish to justify his power at the expense of his goodness?" 30 Mill did not

arguments seem
vincing.

however, develop clear ideas about the relation of
29 See Chap. VII, § 5. 30 Rousseau's letter to

God

to

Voltaire,

August

18,

1756.

See

also

Brightman,

Art.(i9i9).

296

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
His metaphysics was undeveloped and

matter and force.

therefore his concept of a finite
vigor.

God

lacked philosophical

In 1891, F. C.
a finite

S. Schiller

God "may

(1864-1937) took the position that 31 William James (1842be proved."

1910), in his famous little book of Lowell Lectures, Pragmatism (1907), rejecting all "tender-minded" absolutisms, went the "tough-minded" road of the finite (273). He turned from neutralism, optimism, and pessimism, and accepted meliorism. God, for him, is the chief, primus inter At pares, of "the shapers of the great world's fate" (298). the same time, James's eloquence of style and realistic facing of facts are not supplemented by a clear definition of the
relation of

view, like so
explanation.

God to the limits of the "great world." many others, is an intuition rather

James's

than an

In 1906 two important treatments of the finiteness of

God

appeared.
logical

J.

M.

E.

McTaggart (1866-1925), the
of Religion?
2

acutely

British

metaphysician, published in that year his
in

work, Some
if

Dogmas

which he argued

that

any conception of
is

God

is

to

be adopted, that of a

finite

God

preferable to that of an infinite one.
is

Although Mche does not

Taggart
see

a metaphysical personalist, holding that nothing
exist,

but eternal persons

he

is

an

atheist, since
is

needed in addition to the society of finite known persons. McTaggart's definitive treatment of the problem appears in The Nature of Existence
a unifying cosmic person

why

(Vol. II, 1927), especially in the chapter on "God and Immortality" (176-187). God means for him "a being who is
personal,

supreme, and good"
Sphinx
(rev. ed.,

(Sec.

488),

supreme not

31 Riddles of the

New

York: The Macmillan Company, 1910),

302-316. 32 This work theistic thought
is

is

notable as being one of the very few serious examinations of

in recent times

available in a second edition

by a competent thinker who (London: Arnold, 1930).

rejects

theism.

It

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
meaning omnipotent.
the supposition that

297

Guided by
is

this definition

he

rejects

God

the universe as a whole, since he
self,

holds that no

self

could be part of another

and we could
that this

therefore not be parts of God.
tion that

He

then rejects the supposi-

God

creates other selves

on the ground

presupposes the reality of time, which he rejects; he admits

might be hard to disprove a creative he disposes of a God who controls and God. Finally, governs without creating, by appeal to the same considerathat
if

time were

real, it

33

tion

—the

supposed

unreality

of

time.
is

Nevertheless,

he

admits that the statement that there

may
(Sec.

be as true as that there are
496).
is

God, while not true, mountains in Switzerland
a

No

one
if

should
this

suppose

that

McTaggart's
absurd.

thought

absurd

summary sounds

His
to

arguments are worthy of hangs by a single thread

close attention; yet a theory that

—the

unreality of time
It

—seems

partake of the quality of gossamer.

lacks the "tough-

mindedness" of William James. The other work appearing in 1906 is S. S. Laurie's Synthetica, important because of its frank treatment of the problem of evil, its recognition of "superfluous evil" (what we have called "surd evil"), and its description of God as
a "spirit in difficulty,"
gle against evil.

who

is

genuinely limited in his strugevil, yet fails
finitistic

Laurie faces both good and

to propose a well-knit theistic philosophy
basis.

on the

H. Bradley (1846-1924) subjected the idea of a finite God to searching analysis in his essay on "God and the 34 Bradley holds with McTaggart that Absolute" (1914). God cannot be the all-inclusive Absolute. God must be
F.
33 Bergson,

Alexander, Whitehead, and

many

others hold

that

time

is

real,

against

McTaggart and Kant.

See arguments for the reality of time in Leighton,

Art.(i9i8), Brightman, Art.(i932), and Gunn, PT.
34 In Bradley,

ETR, 428-451.

298

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM

finite.

A

finite

religion, but imperils the peace

God, he admits, is compatible with heroic and satisfaction that religion
about Bradley's "finite

needs.
that
its

The

essential point

God"
it is

is

finiteness consists primarily in the fact that

not
is

the whole;

God
is

is

limited by that in the Absolute

which

external to God.
that

The

notion that

which

not himself, or that

God may have created there may be a limitation

within God, does not enter into his calculations.

He

is

con-

cerned only with an antinomy of religion: that religion

needs the peace that only an Absolute can give, whereas the
only

God

religion can have

must be

finite-heroic but un-

satisfying.

Herbert George Wells (1866ness.

)

is

the

first

modern
finite-

writer to devote an entire book to the concept of God's

God

the Invisible

King (1917)

is

a curious

compound

of diluted

Gnosticism and Manichaeism, with Wellsian
In
it

imagination.

Wells proposes the distinction between

the creator of the universe, a Veiled Being of
is

whom
is

nothing

known, and God,
all

the Invisible King, a finite, youthful,
is

developing deity,
of

who

known,

is

good, and

the object

noble aspiration.
is

The

trouble with this Neo-Maniwill doubt-

chaeism
less

that the

good God, having been born,
Veiled

some day
that the

die, that the

One

can't be relied

on

not to interfere even before the King dies his natural death,

and

King
it

is

hardly to be distinguished from the
British souls in 1917.

social

mind

as

was among aspiring
it

Intellectually, Wells's idea of a very finite

ing to religious thought; but

God added nothperformed the historical

function of keeping the problem before men's minds.

of

There is an obvious resemblance between the philosophy Henri Bergson (1859) and the idea of a finite God.
as those of the reality of time, the

Concepts such
the

waste in
the

onward movement

of the elan vital, the importance of
all

freedom, novelty and struggle,

connect

him with

TH EI STIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
thought of a limited, but ever-creative, cosmic force.
of the
first to see this
30

299

One
re-

aspect of Bergson

was Frank H. Foster

(in 1918).

Bergson himself did not clearly avow the

ligious implications of his philosophy until 1932, when The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (TSMR) appeared

(Eng.

tr.

1935).

In this book, Bergson develops his ideas

about religion and God.
deity of Aristotle for a

He

plainly rejects the absolute
of love

dynamic personal God

—one

too

good

to

have willed suffering.
if

He

asks

why anyone

should suppose that, even
be regarded as God.
3G

God

is

not so omnipotent as to
that the trouble arises

be the creator of suffering, he should therefore not properly

His answer

is

from
then

a priori thinking;

we suppose

ourselves to

know

in

advance that

God must

be both omnipotent and good, and

we become
is

atheists

when we
method

are able to prove that

good

not omnipotent in experience.

Bergson pleads for
find reason for befor calling

a rejection of this a priori

in favor of the empirical

approach.

If

we

question experience,

we

lief in a real

God, but we find no reason

him

omnipotent.

This historical sketch began with Plato's conception of a

Anglo-American philosopher of the present time, Alfred North Whitehead (1861) is in a sense a modern Plato, who builds on the Timaeus, and 37 develops a modern version of the Platonic Demiurge. At about the time of the appearance of Whitehead's Process and Reality, there was a spontaneous outburst of thought favorable to a finite God. It appeared in H. B. Alexander's Truth
finite

began in The Problem of God (1930) the development of the idea of a personal finite God whose finiteness consists
in his

own

internal structure: an eternal unitary personal
is

consciousness whose creative will
necessities of reason
fact.
38

limited both by eternal

These

limits

he called The Given

and by eternal experiences of brute an aspect of God's

—

consciousness which eternally enters into every
the divine experience and into everything that
obstacle or as instrument to the will of

moment
is,

of

either as

God.

In 193 1 Rado-

slav A. Tsanoff published The Nature of Evil, in which, although he did not use the terminology of the finite God, he expressed substantially the same idea by contrasting the drag (The Given) with the urge (the will) in the cosmic

process (27, see also 364-401).

Limits of space prohibit the listing of the names of more

than a few of the recent writers
in the idea of a finite

who

have shown

interest

God. Some of the more prominent (most of whom find The Given external to God) are W. K. Wright, John Bennett, Robert L. Calhoun (who speaks of "rigidities" within God), W. T. Marvin, Henry Nelson Wieman, Vergilius Ferm, Georgia Harkness, and Peter A. BerReligious poets like Studdert-Kennedy and Edwin tocci. Markham, and the very different Rainer Maria Rilke, have 39 expressed the conception in deeply moving verse. It may
be said that philosophically-grounded belief in a
38 See also

finite

God

The Finding of God (1931) and Personality and Religion (1934). more fully in the next chapter. 39 Consult R. H. Dotterer, "The Doctrine of a Finite God in War-Time Thought" in Hibb. Jour., 16(1918), 415-428; "The Doctrine of a Finite God" in Webb, GP, 134-155; "Pluralism and the Finite God" in Perry, PPT, 316-330; also Reeman, NIG, and Lupton, RSC (the last two being popular treatments). Sec also writers like Howison and Rashdall.

The view

will be treated

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
is

301

more widespread in the present century than at any time It must be added that antifinitism has also come to its most intense expression in the theology of Karl
since Plato.

Barth.
conflict.

We
What

live in

days of intellectual, as well as of

social,

§

6.

Theistic Absolutists and Theistic Finitists

Have
The foregoing
sition

in

Common
may
well have
left

historical survey

the

reader with the impression of an almost unmitigated oppo-

The

between Platonic finitism and Aristotelian absolutism. seems suffused with the serenity of Olympian former appears to be erratic and inconsistent. Yet calm; the
latter this first

impression

is

false to the resemblances, as well as

to the differences, of the

two views.

In the face of the facts
?

of evil,

how
As

can the absolutist be quite so serene

And

in

the face of the facts of good,
erratic?

how

can the

finitist

be quite so

a matter of fact, the

two views,
ground.

in their best

form, have considerable
(1) Absolutists

common

and

finitists

agree that

God

is

a person.
also of

Of

course, there are certain types of absolutistic
40

and

finitistic

philosophy which deny personality to God, but

we

are not

now

concerned with such views.

We

are examin-

ing differences
is
is

among
is,

theists,

and

all theists

agree that

God
is

personal.

That

they hold that the eternal reality which

the ultimate source of everything good in the universe

a conscious spirit

— a mind that
is

is

eternally rational
this

The only
whose

"theistic" finitists to

deny

and good. are H. G. Wells,
selfal-

finite

God

neither eternal nor, probably, a

conscious person, and

H. N. Wieman, whose
is

finite

God,

though probably
are exceptions.
40 See

eternal,

not a person.

These thinkers

Chap. VII,

esp. §

it.

3 02

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
"Eternal

(2) Both groups agree that ideals are objective.
values," as they have often

been called, are essential to the character of God, whether he be absolute or finite. Whatever limits may or may not restrict the power of God, his will
is

eternally directed

Belief in a

God

is

belief that

toward the realization of ideal ends. egoism and ethical materialism

are not only false in their

human
is

utility,

but also

false to

the eternal purpose of the universe.
(3) Both agree that

God

worthy of worship.

This

follows from the previous point.

Man

worships the good,

the true, the beautiful, and the holy in their highest expression.

He

worships

God

not because

God commands

it

and

has power to enforce his commands, but because the eternal
will of

God

is

eternally loyal to those ideals

value to existence.

God

is

which impart worshipped not because he is
good.
is

omnipotent, but because he
(4)

is

They

also agree that

God

responsive to man.

Ac-

cording to both,

God

is

not only conscious of himself, but

he is also conscious of every event in the universe. God, whether absolute or finite, is conscious of man's appeal to him, and is conscious of the ideally best response to those
appeals.
lutists

How,

then, could he fail to respond

?

Both absois

and

finitists

hold that the
in

life

of religion

actual ex-

perience of divine response to
(5)

human
some

need.
sense
i?i

Both hold that God

is

control of the
is

universe.

The

nature of the control in the two theories
it

very different,

reappear in
the

must be granted, and those differences later discussion. Meanwhile, we point out
is

will

that

finitist, as

well as the absolutist, holds that the will for
the eternally
least,

law, for rational order, and for good,

dom-

inant force in the universe.

In this sense, at

the

finitist

believes in eternal divine control as truly as does the absolutist.

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
(6) Both also agree that in at least
ited: namely, by the principles of reason

303

two senses God is limand by his own selfNeither

limitation in his creation of free beings able to sin.
absolutist

nor

finitist

supposes that the laws of reason were
fiat

created by an arbitrary

of will; .reason

is

an eternal and
will.

uncreated attribute of God, not dependent on his

Neither absolutist nor
himself
41

finitist

when he

created beings with a

would doubt that God limited power of choice. But
regards the reason as an in-

the absolutist insists that both of these limitations are "ratified"

by the divine

will.

He

tegral part of the will and' the created beings as products of

the will.

On

the other hand, the

finitist insists

that these

two

limitations taken together fall far short of explaining

the surd evils of experience.

solutists

Such are some of the chief agreements among theistic aband theistic finitists. These agreements show that,
Both represent great change from the but both conserve and deas
is

in the main, both types of theism are "evolutionary" rather

than "revolutionary."

earliest stages of religious belief;

velop the values which historical religion has discovered,

without any radical or revolutionary break, such
volved in the denial of the personality of
thinkers. in finitism than in absolutism.

in-

God by
is

certain

Yet the rate of evolutionary change

more rapid
their agree-

Hence, with

all

ments,

it is

not to be forgotten that finitism and absolutism

propose fundamentally different solutions of the problem of
good-and-evil,
attitudes in

and imply fundamentally

different practical
that,
it is

ultimately,

many concrete situations. Absolutists hold God wills what we call evil, and sees that
finitists

good; whereas

hold that there

is

ultimate evil in the

universe which God has in no sense willed and against which he always exerts his full energy.
41

A

term often used in

this

connection by A. C. Knudson.

304

THEISTIC ABSOLUTISM AND FINITISM
Bibliographical

Note

view, and the best criticism of the

In recent literature, one of the best statements of the absolutist finitist view, is to be found in
In

Knudson, DG(iQ3o), and DR(iQ33).

DG,

see

especially

Chapter VII, on "The Absoluteness of God." In DR, the relevant material is in Chapter IV, on "Suffering." Ferm, FCRP(i937), 145-183, is an objective and concise survey. It is not necessary to list further references here, in view of the abundance of material cited in the footnotes to § 3 and § 4 of this
chapter.

TEN
IS

GOD

FINITE?
Theistic Absolutism

§

i.

Argument for

OR

general considerations bearing on belief in

God, the reader is referred back to Chapter VII. At this point, we shall now consider only the specific arguments that may be urged in favor of
theistic absolutism.

When man
pression
life

faces his experience thoughtfully, the first imis

makes on him

certainly not that of the

tence and absoluteness of good.

omnipoMan's world looks much

more
facts.

like a battlefield

than a triumphal entry, more like a

problem than

a solution.

The
more

religious
evil to

man

sees the evil

Indeed, they look

him than
demands

they do to
is

an irreligious or nonreligious man, because he

judging
a

them by

a divine standard.

The

lofty

of his faith
is

make
state

evil all the blacker.

He

sees clearly that there

from which he needs to be saved. He sees that matter (however it may be explained metaphysically) is inferior to

spirit.

He

sees that

time

is

less

glorious than eternity;

"now

we
all

see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face."

Seeing

the evil, he nevertheless affirms the

supreme

reality of

good.

The argument
ent
in a
evil,

for theistic absolutism

is

based essentially on

the religious experience just described.

In a world of appar-

man

finds within himself an ideal of perfect good;

world apparently accidental he finds within himself an

ideal of rational purpose.

Using
305

this ideal to interpret his

306

IS

GOD FINITE?
much
that

experience, he discovers that

was apparently
ideal.

meaningless acquires meaning in the light of the
finds,
it is

He

true, that there

is

much

that he cannot explain,

but he retains his trust in the ideal and believes that some-

how

all

apparent

evil will

be shown to be real good.

Logi-

cally,

he

may compare

this trust to the trust of a

science in the ideal of causal explanation.
that scientists can explain;

man of There is much
not explained

much

is left

that

is

by any

investigator.

But the

fact that the causes of

some
undisas-

phenomena

are

unknown
no
cause.

does not lead anyone to suppose

that they have

Confidence in the ideal

is

turbed by our ignorance;
sured that
lutist is

we keep

seeking for causes,

we

shall find

them.

So, too, the theistic abso-

assured of a perfect good even though his knowledge

and understanding of it are very imperfect. Kant, in his Critique of Pure Just what is this ideal? x Reason, calls it "a mere ideal, yet one free from flaw." It 2 is essentially Aristotle's Pure Form, as well as the God 3 of the ontological argument. It is the ideal of the best and think, and includes perfection of greatest that man can power and knowledge, as well as perfection of goodness. This ideal is not merely an outgrowth of man's religious nature. It is also an expression of his logical nature. The
search for truth
is

a search for completely coherent thought

about experience.
ideal

Complete coherence

is

an unattained

—

perhaps forever unattainable by man.

Yet no one

could deny the validity of coherence merely because he could
not be coherent.
value, power,
ist's

there arises before the

Now, if the true and the real are coherent, mind an ideal of completely coherent
eternity.

and

Thus

logic leads to the absolut-

God,

as did religious experience.

1 2 3

A6 4 i(B669).
This chapter,

§§3 and
§

4.

See Chap. VII,

5.

IS
Such, in the main,

GOD FINITE?
is

307
that leads

the sort of

argument

men—and
absolutistic

has led them through the ages

—to
is

accept the

God.

Many,

in fact, will say that

be as this argument describes him, or else there
all.

God must no God at

Perhaps they are too
§ 2.

sure.

Argument Against Theistic Absolutism

The logic of the case for the infinite, omnipotent God marches with a magnificent sweep which thrills the mind. Yet the sweep of logic is one thing and its cogency is another.

Rationalistic

method cannot

define

a

priori

the

content of experience,
of an absolute

human
is

or divine.

That the existence
is

God

(or of any

God)

not demonstrated

with logical necessity
of the

generally admitted since Kant's
4

searching analysis of the traditional proofs and his doctrine

primacy of the practical reason.
;

As

B. P.

Browne

has said: "The arguments, carefully considered, turn out
to fall short of demonstration."

N. K. Smith remarks that "it is no longer regarded as possible to demonstrate by 6 dialectical argument the existence of God." Many other philosophers and theologians could be cited to the same
effect.

See the "Transcendental Dialectic" of the Critique of Pure Reason, and AbKant's Ethical Theory, 218.

5

Bowne, KS, 207.
29(1920), 24.

6 In Phil. Rev.,

3 o8

IS
of their faith.

GOD FINITE?
In fact,

ment
Mary.

many

ordinary Christians prac-

tically identify

God

with Christ or even with the Virgin
tends

Practical

religion

toward

picture-thinking

much may be said for the position that the supposed religious demand for an absolutely infinite God is largely a result of the influence of Aristotle on Christian thought. (3) The viand a
far too finite

view of God.

(2) Historically,

tality of

Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and other

finitist
is

sects

proves that religion can flourish

when

absolutism

denied.

The decay
tices

of these sects

may

be due to their ascetic prac-

and (4) Most

irrational

dogmas
is

rather than to their finitism.

serious of all

the fact that metaphysical conclu-

sions cannot be

grounded on the inspection of any limited area of experience even so important an area as the religious. Let the religious values be as autonomous and unique as they possibly can be, it nevertheless remains true that no metaphysically objective inferences can be drawn from
,

religion until the religious values have been considered in
relation to all other values,
7

and

until the

whole range of

value experience has been related to the empirical facts

argument for an absolute God leaves us just exactly where we were at the close of the argument from the dialectic of desire and before the em8 pirical facts of surd evil had been considered. Religious faith may, indeed, triumph over the evil facts; but a philosophy of religion must be not merely a triumph, but also an explanation. If the religious argument is defective, the logical one The logical argument rested in part on an is even more so. analogy between the ideal of teleology and the ideal of It was held that each ideal is wholly valid, and that cause. this validity is in no way impugned by the absence of comof existence.

The

religious

7

See Chap.

Ill,

§§ 4-7.

8

Chap. VIII,

§ 7.

—
IS

GOD FINITE?

309

The analogy, however, leads when the concept of cause is carefully examined. Anyone who recognizes any factor of 9 chance or of freedom in the world, or who has considered
plete empirical verification.
in surprising directions
is aware that the by Newton, Kant, and nineteenth-century physics no longer remains unimpaired. Its

Heisenberg's principle of indeterminacy,

rigid ideal of cause as held

absoluteness

is

marred by the

facts of experience.

So, too,

with the ideal of an absolutely

infinite teleology.

The

re-

mainder of the logical argument was an appeal to coherence. But this appeal carries with it no a priori information about the object which is coherently thought about. Coherence as such implies no claim that reality shall be
perfect.
It

implies only a

demand
all

that true thinking shall

include a systematic account of

the facts of experience;
inclusion of
theistic
all

and
is

it

is

precisely in this respect

—the

the

facts of good-and-evil

—that the belief in
it

absolutism

weakest.

There are
are (1)
evils
its

five

objections to theistic absolutism
a highly

which,

taken together, render

improbable view.

These

appeal to ignorance, (2) its ascription of surd to divine will, (3) its tendency to ma\e good and evil
(4)
its its

indistinguishable ,

cutting of the nerve of moral

endeavor, and (5)
sider these in order.

unempirical character.

Let us confor theistic

(1) Its appeal to ignorance.

absolutism entails the

The argument admission that we cannot

explain the

surd

evils

—the

waste, the cruelty, the injustice of nature

and that we must admit our ignorance, while retaining the
faith that the fuller light of
10

immortality will

make

clear

That we are ignorant requires what we do not now know. no elaborate argument. None of our ultimate insights
9

See E. G. Spaulding,

A World

of Chance, passim.

10

See Knudson,

DG, 208-209.

310

IS

GOD FINITE?
if

achieve certainty.
are ignorant,
that

But

the absolutist believes that

we

truly

what right has he to assert at the same time we have knowledge? If we do not know, how dare
goods?
"Verily thou
1

we

infer that the surd evils are real

God that hidest thyself," says the Second Isaiah (45:15). In so far, then, as we are dealing with a deus absconditus? it is the part of wisdom to admit that we do not know, rather
art a

than to infer God's absoluteness from our ignorance (as

Royce in The Religious Aspect of Philosophy). Spinoza wrote bitterly of "voluntas dei, asylum ignorantiae" "the will of God, the refuge of ignorance." Hume spoke more moderately in Part XI of the Dialogues Concerning Natural

—

Religion:

There may,

for

aught

interposes not in this

we know, be good reasons, why providence manner [i.e., to turn evils into goods] And
:

though the mere supposition, that such reasons
surely
it

exist,

may

be
12

suffi-

cient to save the conclusion concerning the divine attributes, yet

can never be

sufficient to establish that conclusion.

In a word, our ignorance must lead either to silence or to
further investigation; and further investigation will always

have to be based on the evidence that
data of which

is

available, not

on

we

are totally ignorant.

(2) Its ascription of surd evils to divine will.
tic

Since theisis

absolutism includes the belief that the divine will

omnipotent and faces no conditions which it did not create, an upholder of that view must find the ultimate source of Martin Luther was frank all surd evils in the will of God.

enough on

this score.

He

declared that

all

men

find the

omnipotence of God "written in their hearts," and that the Omnipotent One wills the existence of sin and suffering as the just and best way to reveal his power, mercy, and
11

"A hidden God"; compare

Wells's "Veiled Being."

12 P.

254 of N. K. Smith's edition of the Dialogues.

IS
honor.
13

GOD FINITE?
if

311

He

goes on to add that

this

could be compre14

hended by reason, then faith wouldn't be necessary.
cis

Fran-

Bacon was doubtless

less religious

than Luther, but he

may

have thought more worthily of

God when he

wrote

the following sharp words:
It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely: and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Plutarch saith well to that purpose Surely (saith he) / had rather a great deal men should say there was no such man at all as Plutarch than that they should say that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born; as the poets 15 speak of Saturn.
:

Belief in

an absolute
it

God

is,

of course,

no mere

superstition;
it is

yet in so far as

ascribes surd evils to his will

in prin-

ciple not utterly different

an omnipotent will
explanation, as D.

from belief in Saturn. Appeal to about which we profess ignorance may
is

enable us to say that even Saturn's act

good; but such an
16

W.

Gottschalk has pointed out, would

serve to account for any kind of

world whatever.
priori,
it

Since

it

would apply

to

any possible world, a

has no special

use in accounting for the particular features of our world,

whether good or evil. (3) Its tendency to make good and
evil is real

evil indistinguishable.
all

Since absolute theism entails the proposition that

apparent

good,

it is

in
It

cism about values.
perience which,
point, seems

danger of producing complete skepticommands us to declare that an exrational

from every

and empirical stand-

judged to be good.
inquiring
13 Dittrich,

an irreducible surd evil shall nevertheless be If what seems evil is really good, an
naturally go on to inquire whether

earthquakes in Japan and Chile are justified by their purifynot the absolute

God

unfair in withholding

those purifying effects

from

New

Englanders or Germans?
his

Saint Augustine concludes his survey of the universe in

Chapter XXXII, Book XIII, of
words: "videmus haec
et

Confessions, with the

singula bona et

omnia bona valde"

("we

see these things

—they are good

taken separately, and

exceedingly good as a whole").
are good,

So anyone must judge
all

who

holds to theistic absolutism; he must hold that

things

whether they seem

evil or not.

(4) Its

cutting of the nerve of moral endeavor.

From

a

theoretical standpoint, theistic absolutism, like other types

of absolutism, removes

all

incentive for moral reform of the

individual or of society, and that for

two

reasons.

First, be-

cause the absolutistic

view denies the

reality of time;

what

happens
even an

in time
illusion.

is

reduced to the
Striving to

level of phenomenon or make changes in the time
its

order thus becomes unimportant and loses

militant cast.

17

Secondly, absolutism holds to an optimism which implies
that the

why

try to

try to
lutists

world is already timelessly perfect. If it is perfect, improve it? If every evil is really a good, why eliminate evils? Fortunately, however, theistic absohave not been theoretically consistent; the moral im-

overcome its metaphysical quietism, and even Calvinists have labored for their God just as though all were not predestined and as though they were free. Yet a conflict between theory and behavior affords no
peratives of theism have
justification for the theory,

even

when

the behavior

is

better

than the theory.

18

17 See Perry, PCI, 249. 18 Even Christian Scientists,

who deny

that error

or evil

is

real

at

all,

are

active in seeking to eliminate this nonexistent illusion
editorial,

from

the world.

See the

"Theodicy," by Clifford P. Smith in The Christian Science Journal.

47(1930). 691.

IS

GOD FINITE?
The
is

313

(5) Its unempirical character.
to theistic absolutism
is

root of

all

objections

a priori faith,

founded in an which in turn grows out of desires found in
that
it

a theory

certain types of religious experience.
it

Many

thinkers regard

as

improper

to consider

our desires

at all;

but after

all,

desires are facts

and they

constitute part of the evidence
is.

about the kind of universe this
therefore, not to be
sideration.
Its

Theistic absolutism

is,

condemned
it

for taking desires into conso, it is

In so far as
lies

does

properly empirical.

defect

in treating a favored set of religious desires

as ultimate intuitions
priori.

— which
to

are taken as absolute

and a

Because of his predilection for a few experiences, the

theistic absolutist
ical fact

sweeps

one side great masses of empir-

with the

a priori faith that
is

some day they

will be

explained.

In this he

unempirical.

Our

interpretation

of experience should

of experience, not with
pleases us most.
It is

grow up out of contact with some provincial corner
true that a survey of the

the whole
of
it

that

whole may
it

lead us to regard religious experience as crucial;
true that only a survey of the

is

also

our assertions
experience.

whole justifies us in any of about the meaning and the object of religious
opinion between

The

essential basis for the difference of

theistic absolutists

and

theistic finitists lies precisely herein.

The
the

absolutists neglect or explain

away

the harsh details of

experience in the interests of their rationalistic faith, while
finitists

find their faith

growing up out of the concrete

rough-and-tumble of experience.
§
3.

Argument for
is

Theistic Finitism
holds that the eternal will
that will did not create,

A
of

theistic finitist

one

who

God

faces given conditions

which
it.

whether those conditions are ultimately within the personality of

God

or external to

If

those conditions are

3H

IS

GOD FINITE?
is

external to the divine personality, the position

a kind of
all

dualism (or dualistic personalism)
personalism.
19

;

if
is

they are

within

divine personality, then the position

a variety of idealistic
is

All theistic

finitists

agree that there

some-

thing in the universe not created by
obstacle or instrument to his will.

voluntary divine self-limitation, which

God and God finds
for

not a result of
as either

Having considered
theistic

the

main arguments

absolutism,

we

should recall

and against that the arguments

against theistic absolutism

may

all

be regarded as pointing

toward finitism. If we compare with § 2, we find the following contrasted results. (1) The hypothesis of a finite God does not need to derive any of its basic evidence from our ignorance. All that it asserts is based on an interpretation of actual experience.

(2)

The surd

evils are

not

as-

cribed to the will of God, although idealistic personalists
assert that the surds are to

be found within God's experience
(3) Finitism maintains
is

of himself as an eternal person.

the eternal distinction between
evil.

what

good and what

is

(4) Finitism is an inspiring challenge to eternal cooperative moral endeavor a cooperation between God and

—

man.

20

(5) Finally, finitism

is

empirical.

It

is

based on

the truly empirical motive of giving a complete and a rational account of all of the experiences of
19 It

man.

21

It resists

(since great personalists, like

(since

would be a terminological blunder to identify personalism with finitism Bowne and Knudson, are absolutists) or with idealism most scholastics and many religious realists are dualists, yet are also perholding that personality
as
is

sonalists in the sense of
tive reality, or else
is

either the only ultimately crea-

the controlling reality, in the universe).

20 See

Brightman, "The Gospel

relevant here although the concept of a finite
21

Co-operation" in Nail, VR, 45-50, which God is not mentioned.
in

is

Donald C. Williams has

in correspondence suggestively defined empiricism

as

"saving the appearances."
a.d.

See Hoernle's chapter under that
to

title

SCM,

99-140.
Simplicius

The much-quoted phrase seems
(fl.

come, not from Plato, but from See his 530), the Neo-Platonic commentator on Aristotle.

Commentarv on De

coelo.

IS

GOD FINITE?
known by
the

315

unknown; starting 22 from the known, it explores the unknown. It is not, however, sufficient to show that finitism is strong
attempts to explain the

where absolutism
tive

is

weak.
it

If

there

is

no independent
Such

posi-

evidence for a view,

should not be accepted merely
is
23

because an alternative view

defective.

positive evi-

dence will
evolution

now
is

be presented.

(1) Evolution.

An investigation of the
starting
it

data of
for

prehuman

a

desirable

point

metaphysical

thought about God, since
does and
faiths,
is

is

when man with

shows something of what God his desires, his values, and his

absent from the picture.

A

survey of the facts of
recent manual, fur-

evolutionary process such as one gains from reading Darwin's Origin of Species, or any
spicuous, perhaps,
vast

more

nishes a mass of apparently contradictory data.
is

the struggle for survival.

Most conThere is a

and almost unthinkable waste in the production of life. Hegner, in his amusing and informing book, Big Fleas Have Little Fleas, mentions a protozoon one individual of which is able to have 268,000,000 offspring in a single month a rate

—

of propagation such that,

if

unchecked,
24

it

would

fill

the

physical universe with this species.
vival entails a death rate

The

struggle for sur-

among

protozoa which causes the
Suth-

figures of the national debt to pale into insignificance.

erland, in

has calculated that the
22 Technically
it is

The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, number of fish that are eating other
preferable to distinguish the terms experience
is

and knowl-

edge.

In this sense, the most certain experience

not knowledge merely because

Experience becomes knowledge only when (a) it is rationally it is experience. organized and (b) it refers beyond the moment's experience to something else. The statement in the text is to be interpreted in the light of this definition.
in the order in

perhaps allow the author to present the arguments roughly which they impressed themselves on his own mind. A more strictly logical order would begin with the fifth of the positive arguments. 24 See Hegner, BFLF, 8.
reader

23

The

may

316

IS

GOD FINITE?
is

fish in

any given minute

about equal to the number of
in the life process; there

drops of water going over Niagara Falls in that minute.

Not only is there colossal waste also what appears to be a great
mentation.
of dinosaurs

is

deal of unsuccessful experi-

Whole

species are developed

which

are unfit are full

to survive in the struggle for existence;

museums

and saber-tooth tigers and countless other beings that were failures. Their line is extinguished. Even the innocent and relatively well-adapted heath hen has died
out within the past decade; the
last known specimen in the world died on Martha's Vineyard Island. One is inclined to quote the sardonic tombstone lyric: "If she was so soon done for, I wonder what she was begun for"; or else the

solemn

lines of In

Memoriam:

Nature, red in tooth and claw

With

ravine, shriek'd against his creed.

An

honest

mind can hardly
It is

face the facts of the life

process without grave perplexity
religious faith.

from the standpoint of
does not

superficial to say that evolution affords

no problem
lie

to religion.

The problem, however,
is

in the descent of

man from
at

the lower animals in ac-

cordance with law.
universal

This descent

simply proof of one
in the universe;
it

and unifying power

work

is

evidence for, rather than against, God.
for religion arises

The

real difficulty

from the
futility

cruel

seemingly aimless
revealed.

and irrational waste and the which evolutionary studies have

The

evidence of such facts points toward the

purposeless, the dysteleological, in short, surd evil.

Chance
called a
is

rather than reason seems revealed in these facts.

Evolution

is

not completely described

when
all is

it

is

wasteful and aimless struggle. wasteful and

Much

of the life process

much

is

aimless.
if

Yet not

wasted and
life

not

all is

aimless.

In fact,

the entire history of

were

IS

GOD FINITE?
it is

317

wasteful and aimless chance,
single

difficult to

conceive

how

a

organism would ever arise that was fitted to cope with the environment and pass on its powers to later generations. If that aspect of evolution which is called the survival of the fit points to a mechanical and accidental aspect of reality,
the fact that there are any organisms at
survive points to a purposive and creative
evolution.
all

that are
at

fit

to

power

work

in

The

survival of the
fit

fit

presupposes the arrival of
arise occasionally,

the

20

fit.

Not only do

organisms

but

they are produced in vast quantity.
in perspective sees the

He who

views the past

movement
which the

of life as a creative or
earliest stages

emergent evolution,
ganisms
tively
fit

26

in

show

or-

to survive for a relatively short time in a rela-

restricted

environment, and the

later

stages

show

organisms, such as the human, equipped to survive for a

much
tion

longer time in a world-wide environment. Evolushows a marked increase in the power of life to alter the environment to suit its needs, in the ability of conscious-

ness to foresee

and plan for the

future,

and in the range of

values enjoyed.

Thus
It

the evidence of evolution

is

seemingly contradictory.
futility;

and it points toward purposeful creation and value. Center on one half of the evidence, and you become an atheist. Center on the other half, and you become a theistic absolutist. Take both together without any explanatory hypothesis, and you become a skeptic. Yet the facts themselves point to an hypothesis. It is an undeniable fact that law, creative evoluIt tion, and purposive advance are revealed in evolution. is equally undeniable that this purposive advance marches on in the presence of the difficulties of waste and purposeless
points toward purposeless waste
25

and

26 "Creative evolution"
is

This cogent stating of the case was a favorite argument of B. P. Bowne's. is, of course, Bergson's term, and "emergent evolution"

Lloyd Morgan's.

Both expressions are

titles

of important books.

3 i8

IS

GOD FINITE:
our knowledge goes, and
but
as far into

facts.

As
at

far

back

as

the future as science

and philosophy can penetrate, we
difficulties;

see

purpose
as the

work under

we

also see

purpose

growing edge

of the universe, the dominant, never

ultimately-thwarted factor.

After

all,

death

is

really only

life process; disease is itself a form of life; and in the long run health and hope, for the race as a whole, triumph over disease and despair. The hypothesis which these facts force on us is that of a finite God. Let us suppose a creative and rational will at work within limitations not of its own making. Then the world of life as we see it is what would be expected if the hypothesis is true; it

an episode in the

appears to be the

work

of a spirit in difficulty, but a spirit
difficulties.

never conquered by the

Particular purposes

be thwarted; the dinosaur and the heath hen
Nevertheless, the general purpose of
life

may may perish. and mind and value
It

always finds
is

new

channels,

new
up.

avenues of expression.

never entirely
is

dammed

The

elan vital rushes on.

Such God.
(2)

the

It is

argument from evolution for belief in a finite the hypothesis which best "saves the appearances"

of the good-and-evil of evolution.

about the
to

Coherent account of surd evil. What has been said futilities and waste of evolution may be extended
all

apply to

the "surd evil"

which

figures so prominently

in the entire

problem

of good-and-evil.

There seems

to

be
it

evil in the universe so cruel, so irrational, so unjust that

work of a good God. The attempts that have been made to show surd evil to be good serve rather
could not be the
to

break down distinctions of good and evil or to build faith on our ignorance of what is good. This outcome has led

abandonment of religious faith on the part of many, or to a religious dualism that is almost a "double truth" on the part of many others. The hypothesis that God is finite brushes aside these cobwebs, and shows that the
to the utter

IS

GOD FINITE?

319

whole difficulty arises from supposing that, if there is a God, he must be omnipotent and infinite in all respects. There is no evidence that power is infinite. All power is under limits;

indeed, the mountain sometimes "labors and brings forth
If

a

mouse."

we suppose
infinite,

the

power

of

God

to be finite, but

his will for

good

we have

a reasonable explanation

scheme of things. Goodness more fundamental than power. As we (3) have seen, the coherent account of surd evil rests on the
of the place of surd evils in the

experience that rational purpose controls the brute

facts.

In

the choice that Epicurus posed between benevolence

and omare de-

nipotence, the choice

lies

with benevolence.

Ends

terminant; means derive their meaning from the ends which
they serve or defeat.
in
it

There
it

power
is

as

such; only the

adorable because

is nothing worthy of worship power of the good is adorable, and is good rather than because it is

power.

God
The

is
it

the goodness in the universe.

If

there

is

power
(4)

for evil,

cannot be the will of God.

structure of all experience as activity, rational

form, and brute fact. Any statement about "all" experience The is manifestly a sweeping one, and subject to correction.
statement that "all experience"
in every
is

a structure that includes,

phase of
fact
is

it,

some

activity,

some
Yet

rational form,

and

some brute
as

intended

as

an empirical hypothesis, not
as

an absolute,
it

a priori necessity.
all

an empirical hy-

pothesis
all

has the support of

we can remember, and

all

There is a theoretical day emerge a kind of experience that is now inconceivable and unimaginable; but the philosophical task is to interpret actual experience, and if different experience arises, different interpretation will be in order. Meanwhile we take our stand on the actual. Every moment of actual experience, and every concrete
ceive.

we now have, we can imagine or conpossibility that there may some
the experience
that

320
real object
~~

IS

GOD FINITE?

to which our experience can refer, is a complex which can be analyzed into factors of three kinds activity, form, and content. In every empirical reality there is some sort of activity or agency. Leibniz and Bowne go too far

—

when
right.

they assert that to be All real being
is

is

to act; but they are partially

active,

although

its

being

may

not

be completely described by the word "activity."
to
it

In addition
is,

being

active, every real object

embodies "form"; that
call

conforms

to the

laws of reason and embodies rational prin-

ciples.

Certain aspects of what

we commonly

form may
is

be no more than a

name

for the kind of activity that

going

on; but the formal principles of logic and the laws of rational

coherence (including the Platonic Ideas) are not the result
of any activity whatever.

They

are present

no matter what
possible
activity

the activity

is;

end them.

no They

activity

can begin them, change them, or

are the principles to

which any
Besides the

(conceivable)

being must conform.
is

and the form, there
pleasures

a content of brute fact

—the ultimate

qualities (or qualia) of experience, the sense qualities, the

and impulses of experience. and a challenge to activity, but is not itself activity. It is the content on which the activity operates, the matter which it has to form. In fact, all experience is a constant activity, which seeks to impose the forms of reason on the content of brute fact.
pains, the desires
is

and

This brute fact

a stimulus

This statement should not be taken to
unempirical proposition that
activity,

mean

the false and

form, and content are
Rather, they are dis-

separate states or entities or processes.

covered by "analysis in situ" to be inseparable constituents of
every pulse beat of actual consciousness and of every object
to

which we
If this

refer.

be true,

we have important

evidence for theistic

27 Certain abstractions,

and the statement does not apply

such as mere subsistents, are not "concrete and real," to them.

IS
finitism.

GOD FINITE?
of

321

Our

experience of activity would be evidence for

the cosmic will of

God; our experience

evidence for his uncreated eternal reason;

2S

"form" would be and our experi-

ence of brute fact would be evidence for his uncreated nonrational content.

To

assert that divine activity created reason

would be to assert that the activity was intrinsically irrational and that reason needed to be created; on the contrary, reason must be coeternal with the will of God. To assert that the brute fact content was created is to assert that God wills the surd evils, which in turn is to assert that his will is evil and his power greater than his goodness. The hypothesis of a finite

God

thus affords a coherent account of the

structure of all experience; to
tions of experience

deny it contradicts the implicaand makes God evil (or unknowable).

(5) Empirical adequacy.

The

case for belief in a finite
is

God may
adequate.

be
If

summed up by saying that it God is an eternal person, whose

empirically
is

will

limited
facts of

by the eternal laws of reason and the eternal brute

his experience, then the observed empirical nature of the

world we experience can be understood. All of its features are explained by reference to the eternal ground of all human experience namely the divine experience. There are empiricists, however, who are not willing to acknowledge that this procedure is empirical. Their objections, voiced in discussion, in correspondence, and in print,

—

are twofold.

They

argue,

first,

that truly empirical

method

appeals to social verification, and, secondly, that true empiri-

cism

restricts itself to

experience without seeking any ex-

planation or ground of experience.

They maintain
falls

that

any

belief in

God, even

in a finite

God,

short of meeting

these conditions.

Let us examine these objections.
are types of verification
28

Scientific

experiments

which may be

socially tested.

Any-

The

"pattern" of Plato's Timaetis 31 A.

3 22

IS

GOD FINITE?
may
repeat

one

who

understands the terms of the experiment

and his results objectively tested are socially recognized. But the belief in God cannot be similarly tested; no experiment verifies it, and different persons facing the same facts may interpret them differently. There is, howthe experiment
ever, a logical flaw in this
lieve

argument.

29

If

it

is

right to be-

only such propositions as can be socially verified in

experiments on observable data, by what right can
that society itself exists?

we

assert

No mind

can observe another's

no experiment can prove concluYet, in sively that any mind exists other than our own. grant the existorder to carry on experiments, we must first ence of other minds which do not appear in the subject matter of the experiments. Our belief in other minds, and so
as a sense object;

mind

in society,

is

a reasonable hypothesis for the explanation of
it is

our experience, but
mentally verified.

not one that can

itself

be experi30

It

is

a presupposition of experiment.

Assuming
is

that belief in society as other than

my

experience

well-grounded in

my

experience, even though not experi-

mentally verifiable, the same logic would lead
a

me to postulate
is

God among

the other minds,

if

my

entire experience

to

be explained.

The

essence of the reply to those
is

who

insist

on

social verification

appeal to

on uses of reason which are more fundamental and
that social verification itself rests

broader than experimental verification.
fication,

Experimental
in solipsism.

veri-

without such use of reason, cannot give us society

or nature or

God;

it

leaves us shut

up

A further answer to this objection lies in the fact that the argument against the empirical verifiability of God is also an argument against the empirical verifiability of values.
The
29

logical positivists in general
has

hold that propositions about
with logical positivism, although the

The argument

much

in

common

criticism offered does not deal with that movement as a whole. 30 See Brightman, "The Presuppositions of Experiment." Personalist,

19(1928),

136-143.

IS
value are "nonsense."

GOD FINITE?
They

323

declare that such propositions

have no meaning and cannot be verified; they are neither 31 true nor false. Thus the logical positivists have unduly nar-

rowed the range of verification; but they have performed a service by forcing the dilemma that values (and disvalues)
either have or

have not a meaningful empirical

status.

If

they have, then, like sense data, they must be taken rationally
into account in our characterization of objective reality.
If

they have not, then they are not available even for a subjective ethics.
justify

In the former case, empirical thinking would
theistic faith.

both ethics and

In the latter case,

neither

would be
32

justified.

The second
P.

objection, ably voiced in a review

by Sterling

Lamprecht,

holds that empiricism

is

"a

method which

no explanation" (75) and argues from this that we have no empirical right to "want more than experience furnishes" (74). Hence God is superfluous and unempirical. There are two answers to this
takes experience itself as needing

argument.
nothing
is

(1) If

its

proponents

mean

only to assert that

asserting
all

more real or ultimate than experience, they are what all theists assert. Theists, however, hold that experience is self-experience and that there is therefore

no substance or subsistence or conceivable entity in the universe more real than self. (2) If they mean literally what Professor Lamprecht says, that "experience itself" needs "no explanation," and by experience they mean the actual concrete experience of

any

human

being, they are simply assert-

ing solipsism.
dire

Surely

my

experience of the
to

moment

is

in

some sort of larger context. The theist, appealing to the law of parsimony, avoids the supposal of nonexperiential entities; on the other
need of explanation by reference
hand, he cannot suppose that the order of nature
is

GOD FINITE?
but follows the most rigorous empostulates a cosmic experient

human

He

pirical logic

when he

and

cos-

mic experience as the explanation of the disordered flashes of experience which we live through. Yet, since these disordered flashes are all we actually possess in our immediate experience, we must construct our view of the larger cosmic experience on the basis of the structure revealed in our own. This structure points, as we have seen, to a finite God.
§ 4.

Argument Against

Theistic Finitism
is

The argument
at

for theistic absolutism (§ 1)

manifestly

the

same time an argument against

finitism.

But the

rapid growth of belief in a finite

God during

the past

few

decades has been accompanied by numerous criticisms of the
idea,

some

of

which have been

superficial

and others acute
here to present

and penetrating.
all

No

attempt will be

made

of them.

Criticisms directed against crude Manichaeism,

or against the imaginings of H. G. Wells, or the incompletely defined idea of

William James

will be ignored, as will

arguments based on sheer misunderstanding. The most weighty objections to finitistic theism are five in number: (1) its supposed religious inadequacy; (2) its anthropo-

morphism;

(3)

its

failure to absolve

God

of responsibility

for creation; (4) the supposed implication that

God

has de-

veloped from zero; and (5) the supposed unworthiness of man as an object of divine love;"''
(1) Its

supposed religious inadequacy.

Religion,

it

is

said, desires
33

and demands
is

a

God

perfect in

power

as well

The

literature criticizing the idea of a finite
to

God

is

abundant.

By

far the

best statement of objections

be found in Knudson,

DR, 204-212.

An

acute

Andrew Banning, "Professor Brightman's Theory of a Limited God. A Criticism," appeared in The Harvard Theological Review, 27(1934), 145-168. The fullest account is in Baker, CLG, 139-178, but reviewers generally have pointed out its lack of objectivity. Many criticisms are summarized and antreatment by

Lyman, MTR, 426-437, discusses the view swered in Brightman, Art.(i932) 2 critically, yet without setting it in its proper context of the problem of good-and.

IS
as in

GOD FINITE?
God, however,

325

goodness.

Believers in a finite

ascribe
to

eternal limits to the

power

of

God; although they hold

the perfect goodness of the divine will, they admit that that

goodness

is

not in perfect control of the universe, on account

of the presence of natural evils either as uncreated factors

within God's eternal experience or
(matter or devil) external to God.

as
It

some

eternal being

may

readily be ad-

mitted that Jewish,

Mohammedan, and

Christian orthodoxy

(Catholic and Protestant) hold dear the position of theistic

absolutism; also that, to one accustomed to asserting the
absolute infinity of God's
of a finite

power and goodness, the thought

God comes

with a shock similar to the impact of

democracy on a mind that is used to belief in the divine right of kings. But to be shocked is not necessarily to be a posThere are reasons for regardsessor and defender of truth. ing the identification of religion with belief in an absolutely
infinite
(i)

God

as

more than dubious.

most religious believers have regarded God finite. This is true of all the early stages of religion, of all polytheism, and of most vital religion that has not come under the influence of Aristotle's Pure Form.
First of
all,

as finite

—far too

The

living religion of the Catholic Christian does not center

on the theological concept of Saint Thomas's God; but it feeds on finite objects the crucified Jesus of Nazareth, the Virgin Mary, and the saints. Most ordinary people cannot grasp the sublime ideas of theistic absolutism; whatever the

Horton, GR, 356, disposes of theistic finitism hastily by of the problem; what he objects to especially is the It is noteworthy that the few casual pages which

Walter Lippmann devoted to the problem of evil speed so rapidly to the conclusion that God is impersonal as to avoid all consideration of the possibility of a finite God; see Lippmann, PM, 213-217.

325

IS
sort or another.

GOD FINITE?
These
facts are

one

mentioned, not

as

a

defense of idolatry or of picture-thinking; but as a refutation
of the supposed universal
tent absolute.
(ii)

demand
if

of religion for an

omnipo-

Furthermore, even

all

religious persons desired a

God who was omnipotent and
exalted faith in such a

entertained a sincere and

omnipotent.

Every

desire,

God, it would not follow that he is whether of religious believers or

must be subjected to the dialectic of reason and fact. Wishful thinking is not valid merely because it is widespread and has inspirational qualities. The foregoing arguments against theistic absolutism have revealed reaof unbelievers,

sons for doubting the validity of this particular desire.
(iii)

After

all,

the object of religious worship
It is

is

a perfect

ideal rather than a perfect power.

true that belief in

the reality of

God

is

belief in the reality of the ideal; but the

eternal reality of the ideal does not entail the unreality of

the unideal.

That way
is

lies

Christian Science;

yet

even

Christian Science ascribes

some

sort of status to "error of
It

mortal mind," which

unideal.

might well be judged

more
for

irreligious to

hold the world

as

we

experience

it

to be

the best possible expression (to date) of an unlimited power

good than

to regard
if

it

as the best possible expression of

a limited

power, for
than

this

world

is

intended to convey the

omnipotent's idea of perfection, then perfection must be

much worse
limiting of

we

supposed.
is

In short, the limiting of

the ideal by theistic absolutism

more

irreligious

than the

power by

theistic finitism.

(iv) Finally, there are certain positive religious values that

attach to the idea of the finite God.

It is

true that

some

able

thinkers are most emphatic in their denial of such value.

Knudson holds
of true religion."
s'

that
3i

it

is

"inconsistent with the spirit

.

.

.

Hocking

expresses agreement with

Ivie-

Knudson, DR, 208.

IS

GOD FINITE?
God
"is of

327

Taggart's contention that the finite

no worth."

35

Over against the judgment
those

of these distinguished

men

is

the

fact of the persistence of belief in a finite

God on

the part of

about power.

more concerned about value than they are is no doubt that Plato 36 held to the conception of a finite God. Would Hocking hold that Plato's God was "of no worth" or that Raphael Demos and Paul Elmer More err in finding that God to be finite? Far from regarding finiteness as of no religious value, F. H. Bradley insists that it is essential to any idea of
are

who

In particular, there

God
Once

that shall have

any religious value

at all.

He

says:

37

give up your finite and mutable person, and you have parted with everything which, for you, makes personality important.
is

Bradley

quite right in this statement (provided by "mut-

able" he does not

mean

"capricious"); his error

lies

in re"intel-

jecting personalistic finitism as "absurd"
lectually dishonest" without subjecting
it

and even

to examination.

From

the conflict of authorities

religious values in the idea of a finite

not omnipotent.
tioned.

At
is

least five

we turn to the specific God who is potent, but such values may be menis

First, there
if

the greater assurance of divine symis finite,

pathy and love;
but
is

God

he

not voluntarily impos-

ing any unjust suffering or "surd" evils on other persons,

power against such evils. A God who is seen to be on man's side in a sense in which the Omnipotent One is not; the omnipotent God may be a
is

exerting

all his

doing that

Hocking, MGHE, 225-226. McTaggart differs from Hocking in holding that arguments for theistic finitism are better than those for absolutism. The judgment of both regarding the religious worthlessness of finitism is so contrary to experience and so casually grounded as to arouse some surprise. Hocking's great work shows that theistic absolutism is religious; it does not show that
35

the

theistic finitism

is

irreligious.

36 See More,
plicitly

POD,

passim, and

Demos, POP,
finite

43,

defends the religious value of a

God

Demos ex120, 125, 337. (120), on the ground of its

"absolute distinction of good and bad."
37 Bradley,

AR, 533.

328

IS
of love, yet
it it

GOD FINITE?
more
faith to believe
it

God
than

requires far
is

of

him
is

does

if

God

finite in

power.
favorable

Secondly, there
to

something awe-inspiring and

mystical

and

"numinous" experiences
of

in the magnificent cosmic struggle

God

against the "fire of anger," "bitter torment," "the

and the "demonic," to use expressions of Jakob Boehme and Paul Tillich. 38 The divine control of that in the universe which the divine will did not create is a spectacle of suffering and victory an eternal Calvary with an eternal Easter which is fitted to elicit the profoundest religious emotions of reverence, gratitude, and faith. Thirdly, belief
abyss,"

—

—

in a finite

God

furnishes those incentives to cooperative en-

deavor toward ever higher moral and social values which

we
for

found lacking from
cept of a finite
belief in creative
fectibility of the

theistic absolutism.

Fourthly, the con-

God with an

eternal task affords

ground

cosmic advance; thus the inexhaustible peruniverse gives

meaning

to immortality

and
it

warrants a religious attitude toward the future.
is

Fifthly,

more natural

to

pray to a

finite

God, who may be moved

by our

infirmities,
39

than to an Absolute, whose decrees are

eternally fixed.

(2) Its

anthropomorphism.

The argument

against be-

lief in a finite
it

God which most impresses some minds is that humanizes God too much. A naive student once rethat
it

marked
508-520.
39

seems to

make God

"a glorified college proin

38 See Georgia Harkness,

"The Abyss and The Given"

Christendom, 3(1938),

A

thinker as acute as

belief that

Hugh R. Mackintosh in his TMT, 299, expresses the Karl Barth has blown "all Manichaean notions sky-high" in the following
Let the reader judge for himself, using his

quotation from his Romans, 321.
semantics: In our apprehension which
is
is

not-knowing, and
forth the final

apprehension, there
to the

is

shown

and

now and
hope.

and heaven, man end of our days is alone accessible to our perception, is announced the ultimate unity which is the glory of the children of God and our
invisibility, of earth

in our not-knowing which and primal unity of visibility and God. In that duality, which

IS
fessor."
self

GOD FINITE?
who
cosmos and
is

329

An

eternal professor
entire

includes within himis

and controls the
the

able to create other
is

persons, including
to

many

nonprofessorial ones,

a being

whom
it

name

of professor

definitely inappropriate.

Yet

must be admitted

that all theism

and

all

idealism
is

alike assert that the ultimate reality of the universe

to

some extent akin to human consciousness and human Having said this, we must say more. Not only is values.
religious idealism

anthropomorphic, but

so, too, is

science.

Natural science

rests

on the foundation of human sensations

and human logic; it makes no statements about objects which are not logical interpretations of our human sensory experiences. In fact, all thinking, whether good or bad, must be anthropomorphic. All of our experience is human. Philosophy cannot reject human factors from our thinking; One condiit must retain them and view them coherently. tion, and one only, must be imposed on religious beliefs: that
they shall give a coherent account of herent within
facts
itself

human
all

experience

—co-

and coherent with

the experienced

and

also

with our interpretation of nonreligious realms
In so far as this ideal
is

of experience.
religious truth.

attained,

we have

A

belief, then,

may

be cogently criticized

not for anthropomorphism but only for incoherence.
If

we

apply

this test to belief in a finite

God we

find

it

to

be coherent with the facts of good-and-evil, with the
theory of evolution, with

scientific

modern

physical

sci-

ence,

and with religious experience. The only sense in which it is anthropomorphic is the desirable one of including a coherent account of
all

the facts of

human

experience.

Antitheistic

and

anti-idealistic

philosophies,

such as nat-

uralism, give an account of the physical aspect of man's

experience.

In the etymological sense they are therefore

more

literally

man

as a

anthropomorphic than is theism, for they take form or shape, a spatial object, and offer exclusively

330
spatial

IS

GOD FINITE?
A physical
However,
and
Naturalism leaves
40

hypotheses to explain man's spatial being.

universe explains only physical man.

consciousness and values in the realm of unexplained miracle,
as far as

coherent explanation

is

concerned.

if

we

think of the universe in such a

way

as to

account for
his ideal

man's memory,
difficult to

his reason, his imagination,

values, as well as for his sensory experiences,

we

find

it

avoid theism; theistic idealism

is

indicated as the

most adequate hypothesis. The absolutist may admit
criticism
as
is

all this

and
is

still insist

that his

sound.

Finitism, he holds,
recapitulation of
is

so close to the facts
theistic

to be a

mere

them; whereas

an explanation. The finitist's reply is that he would rather have the facts unadorned than have an explanation that confuses good with evil. Both contenFinitism is much more than tions, however, are extreme.
absolutism, he thinks,
a restatement of

human

experience;
is

it is

an hypothesis about
all

the eternal experience

which
so

the source of

being.

On

the other hand, the absolutist's theory

may

be consistent
as to lack the

with the

facts,

but

it is

remote from them
also "save the

coherence essential to truth.

Truth must not only abstain
appearances."

from contradiction;
Here, absolutism
Professor

it

must

fails.

W.

Macneile Dixon reports that a traveler found

an African

tribe

which believed God

to be

good and

to

wish good for men; but they held
has "a half-witted brother,

that,

unhappily,

God

who is always interfering with an uncritical anthropomorphism, indeed; but is it not more coherent with the facts of experience than a theism which declares that all the deeds
what he
does."
41

This

is

of the half-witted brother are parts of the perfect expression of perfect good will by 40 The reader is referred to the
41

omnipotence?
note in Chap. VII,
§

n,

(5),

(ii)

for fuller ex-

planation of the miraculous character of naturalism.

Dixon, HS, 8}.

IS

GOD FINITEGod

331

(3) Its failure to absolve
tion.

of responsibility for crea-

The
is

strongest objection to the theory of theistic finiif

tism
his

that

God

is

regarded as a creator, however
still

finite

power, he must
42

be held responsible for having

created

man, knowing
evils.

that

man would

necessarily suffer

from surd

Comment on
about creation.
tails

this

argument

necessitates

some remarks

Obviously, the theory of a finite

God

en-

a view of creation different

from

that of traditional

theism.

According

to the

traditional

view,

God
fiat
its

created
of will.

the world "out of nothing" {ex nihilo) by a

A

creationist theory has the
theistic

problem of

evil

on

hands,

and

absolutism

is

also creationism.

The problem
as

of evil
in the

may

be avoided by a complete denial of creation,

thought of H. N. Wieman.

He

regards nature as

uncreated and defines
nature.
43

God

as the principle of

Such a view holds

to the finiteness of

without being subject to the criticism
rected against belief in a creator-God.
is

growth within God, yet which may be diIts

impersonalism
satisfactory ac-

philosophically unsatisfactory;

it

gives

no

count of the source of consciousness and value or of the
unity of nature.
It

gains exemption

from the problem

of evil

by failing to cope thoroughly with the problem of good. Furthermore, we cannot brush aside the problem of creation. After all, there is creative evolution, and the population of conscious persons in the universe is constantly being added
to; the bodies of these persons

might conceivably be regarded
stuff,

as

made

out of pre-existing

but their conscious per-

sonalities

must be viewed

as creations.

How then is creation to be viewed? Let us sketch a working hypothesis from the standpoint of finitistic personal idealism. According to this hypothesis, the reality
42 This argument is best stated by 43 See Wieman and Horton, GOR,

Knudson, DR, 207-208.
325-367.

332

IS

GOD FINITE?
is

of the physical universe
scious

located wholly within the con-

experience

of

God.

Physical space-time

is

God's

standard space-time experience; energy and force are God's
will

controlling and

directing this experience; the sense

qualities of physical things are the "content" aspect of

The

Given

in God's experience, while the mathematical

formulae

of physics result

from God's
by "form."
44

will that his given "content"

shall be controlled

Biological evolution

is

God's
suc-

progressive, creative

control of

cessful, partly unsuccessful, as

The Given, partly we have seen (§3).
numerous modern

This hypothesis
(or deists)
sponsibility

is

objected to by

theists

who

think they can save divine dignity and resets

by a dualism which

nature apart from

God
is

both quantitatively and qualitatively.
superfluous hypothesis for one

But dualism
believes
in

a
it

who
is

God;

needs Occam's razor.

If

nature

created, then

God and
is

God
it

alone

is

the ultimate explanation (although his will
evils in nature.
If it is
it

not the cause) of the surd
nevertheless limits

not created,

God

as effectively as if
is

were within

him, and God's experience of nature
within

then a "Given"

God

just as truly as

nature were not there.

though the additional external Such dualism is an hypothesis with
it

no

religious or philosophical function;

serves only to de-

lay the day of reckoning with
It is

God

about good-and-evil.

but a cushion for reverent feelings, with no further use.
the other hand, personalistic finitism solves the
it

On
of

problem

in so far as

gives a coherent account of all the elements
evil.

good and

The
tion.

personalistic theory of creation needs further defini-

All events in physical nature are events within God.
is

But physical nature

not
is

all

there

is,

either for
his

God
of

or for

man.
44

Man's personality
creative here

no part of
way

body nor
novelties

any of

The word

means only productive

of

within divine

experience, not productive of beings in any

external to

God.

IS

GOD FINITE?
He
is

333

the physical objects that surround him.
self.

a personal

as a

He He

God nor rearrangement of matter (however matter be viewed). is a creation, but not an arbitrary or "special" creation.
As
such, he cannot be thought of as a part of
is

brought into being by the will of

God under

the given

conditions.

When God
is

creates,

he has

to create as a will

limited both by reason and by nonrational content.

when man
deeds.

created there enter into his being the

Thus same

constituents that obtain eternally in

God and
we
are

in all his

This brings us back to the main problem
sidering.
If

now

conis

God

creates

man under
had

these conditions,

he
all,

just as responsible as though he

created
is

him

ex nihilo

and had willed if The Given is

all

of the evils

man
it

heir to?

After

in

man, God gave

to

him.

If this

argusolves

ment
it is

is

sound, then a finite creator

God no more

the problem of evil than does an
a better
it

infinite creator.

In fact,

God;

argument for atheism than it is for an infinite makes evil an insoluble problem and an insuperable

difficulty for rational faith.

Before yielding to skepticism (an easy
thinking),
let

us examine the situation

way to avoid hard more carefully. On
all so-called evils

the hypothesis of absolutism,
as

God

regards

instrumental goods and therefore approves of them.

He
was

created voluntarily

and wisely; "and God saw

that

it

good."

On

the hypothesis of finitism,

God
is

sees that there

are real evils

which

are ideally unjustifiable, yet he creates

other persons.

The motive

of creation

rational love.

One may

suppose that there lay before
irrational evils

God

only two

alternatives: that of creating other persons

must contain many
at all.

whose existence and that of not creating

The

latter

would

forfeit all the values in a social

universe,

and all the possibilities of human existence. The former would lead to the world of society as we experience

334
it.

IS

GOD FINITE?
God would
it,

One may
endure
all

well think that a good

be willing
entailed,

to

the added suffering that

would be

and to help humanity to endure and control to have a universe without human values.

rather than

Who

would
by The

deem

this choice
is

wrong?

Yet

it

is

one thing

to say that

creation

justified in spite of surd evils entailed

Given and quite another thing
the finite

to say,

with Knudson, that
evils as justified

God

"regarded the unavoidable

by the

total

outcome."
to

rightly call evil good.

judge the

evils

be

man nor God can A wise finite God could not possibly justifiable. He judges them to be
Neither

4o

unjustifiable as well as unavoidable, yet in spite of the dross

of creation, he creates because gold
create evils unnecessarily

may

be obtained.

To
creaevils

tion of
is

would be monstrous. The persons whose lives must contain unjustifiable
if

nevertheless justified
is

redemption

is

possible.

Unless

the creator
is

also a redeemer, as Irenaeus held,
fact that evil

our

doom
is

sealed.

But the

must enter

into

any posevil.

sible creation

does not

mean

that the act of creation
is

Creation means only that

God

responsible for exercising
that he
is

redemptive love;

it

does not

mean

either

re-

sponsible for or acquiescent in the evils

which
is

his will does

not create, but finds.
as the

and regard it no escape from Bowne's obiter dictum that the "world-ground, by its independent position, is the source of the finite and of all its 46 determinations." On this basis, no rational solution of the problem of evil in creation is possible; one must take
If

we hold
will,

to creation

act of

an unlimited

there

refuge
finite
45

in

an almost blind

faith.

The

hypothesis

of

a

God makes

a rational, open-eyed faith possible.

46

Knudson, DR, 208. Bowne, THE, 64. But

see his

MET,

295-296, where he finds "the purposes

of the system mostly inscrutable."

IS

GOD FINITE?
that

335

(4) Its supposed implication

God

has developed

from

zero.
4T

One

aspect of belief in a finite

poralism

and evolutionism.

In

some

sense,

God is God

its
is

tem-

movas

ing on, creating novelties, progressively.

There
in

is,

have

said,

following Whitehead, creative advance.

we Now,
sugless,

the idea of future expansion to
gests the idea of a past that

more and more
is

God
and

regressively less

until

one reaches the limit of zero.
This argument

Thus

the idea of a finite

God

leads to the absurdity that everything developed
is

from

nothing.

a perplexity (an aporia) aris-

ing from the nature of infinity.

However

finite

God may

be in some respects, he must be infinite in some ways (as

we

shall see in § 5).

time, of

staggers

For example, he must be infinite in unbegun and unending duration. The thought imagination and leads to many difficulties. If unbegun, then
infinite

time
there

is

really

time has already elapsed.

Why,

then, has not everything
is

happened already?
it

To

this

only the double answer:

is

necessary that time

be unbegun (for there would be a time before any possible

beginning)
yet
a zero
finite

;

and experience shows that everything has not

happened.

On

similar principles the difficulty about

beginning must be dealt with.

However much
and
he

a

God may

progress, he has infinite stages

varieties
is

of progress behind

him; and

at all stages of progress,

the fullness of

all

actual objective being, the creator of
all

all

created being, the unity of

energy.

His inexhaustible

perfectibility for the future presupposes a past series of in-

exhaustible perfectibilities.

The

conception of a beginning

with zero

is

due

to picture-thinking resting

of diverging (and so converging) lines,
necessities of infinite duration.

on the analogy and ignoring the

47

Brightman, Art. (1932).

336

IS

GOD FINITE?

(5) The supposed unworthiness of man as an object of divine love. In his little book, Religion and Science, Ber-

trand Russell offers as his ultimate argument against
theism,
finitist

all

or absolutist, and against

all

religion of every
life

type, the assertion that the values of

human

are not

worthy of a God. Man's existence, he thinks, has all the marks of being an accident rather than a work of rational purpose. One may make an ad hominem reply and point out Lord Russell's own devotion to human social values and his protests against social wrongs as an indication that he takes man more seriously than his words imply. Without recourse to personalities, however,
the
ideal

we may

appeal to

experience

of

the

race.

values have been recognized in

Everywhere spiritual some form or other; every-

where man has dreamed of something better than he now is. Lord Russell's objection, taken with these facts, reduces to an argument against divine omnipotence (which he rejects) and an argument for an eternal finite God (whose
existence he does not even entertain as a possibility).

None
closely

of the

arguments against

theistic finitism is conall
is

clusive, not

even the strongest one; and
that a finite object

of
a

examined show probable and coherent and absolute one.
§ 5.

God

them when much more
an
infinite

of belief than

Restatement of the Hypothesis of a FiniteInfinite Controller of The Given
some
repetition,
it

At

the cost of

may

be well for the sake

of clarity to state in a

the definition of
gation.

more precise and connected form God which has emerged from our investi-

God
finds

is

personal consciousness of eternal duration; his

consciousness

is an eternally active will, which eternally and controls The Given within every moment of his

IS
eternal experience.

GOD FINITE?
48

337

The Given
and

consists of the eternal, un-

created laws of reason

also of equally eternal

and

uncreated processes of nonrational consciousness which exhibit all the ultimate qualities

of sense objects

(qualia),

disorderly impulses

and
in
istic

suffering,
is

and desires, such experiences as pain the forms of space and time, and whatever
evil.

God
of
it

the source of surd
that
is

The common

characteris,

all
is

"given" (in the technical sense)

first,

that

eternal within the experience of

God and

hence

had no other origin than God's
that
it is

eternal being; and, secondly,

not a product of will or created activity.

Given

to be in consciousness at all
49

means

that

it

For The must be
is

process;

but unwilled, nonvoluntary consciousness

dis-

tinguishable from voluntary consciousness, both in
in

God and

man.

God's finiteness thus does not mean that he began
it

or will end; nor does
external to himself.

Strictly

mean he is limited by anything we should speak of a God
than a
finite

whose
finite

will

is

finite rather

God;

for even the

God

is

absolute in the sense of being the ultimate
creation.

source of

all

God's

will,

then,

is

in

a

definite sense
50

finite.

But

we

Although the power of his will is limited by The Given, arguments for the objectivity of ideals give ground for the postulate that his will for goodness and love is unlimited; likewise he is infinite in time and space, by his unbegun and unending duration and by his inclusion of all nature within his experience; such a God must also be unlimited in his knowledge of all that is, although human freedom and the nature of The Given probably limit his knowledge of the precise details
"finite-infinite."

have called him

of the future.
4S Including logic, mathematical relations, and Platonic Ideas. 49 Note Whitehead's category of process in Process and Reality. 50 See "A Finite-Infinite God" in Brightman, PR, 71-100.

338

IS

GOD FINITE?
is

The

further predicate of "Controller of

explanation.

God's will

eternally seeking

The Given" needs new forms of

embodiment

of the good.

creative artist eternally

God may be compared to a painting new pictures, composing
51

new dramas and new
finding

symphonies.

In this process, God,

The Given as an inevitable ingredient, seeks to impose ever new combinations of given rational form on the given nonrational content. Thus The Given is, on the
one hand, God's
aesthetic

instrument for the

expression

of

his

and moral purposes, and, on the other, an obstacle God's control of to their complete and perfect expression. The Given means that he never allows The Given to run wild, that he always subjects it to law and uses it, as far
as possible, as an instrument for realizing the ideal good.

Yet the divine control does not mean complete determination; for in

some

situations

The Given, with

its

purposeless

processes, constitutes so great

an obstacle to divine willing

that the utmost endeavors of

God

lead to a blind alley and

temporary
tially

defeat.

At

this point,
is

God's control means that

no defeat or

frustration

final; that the will of

God, par-

thwarted by obstacles in the chaotic Given, finds

new

avenues of advance, and forever moves on in the cosmic
creation of

new values. 52 The view may be clarified by comparing and
with Plato's conception of a
finite
53

contrasting

it

Demos's sound analysis, which rests Timaeus as the definitive formulation of the Platonic phiBut God cannot be called "an unhampered artist," as Pratt does in PR, 376. is genuinely hampered by The Given. 52 Bowne once wrote that "the finite as we experience it is not worthy of God" ST, 442. Proper inference from that is that the finite is not an expression of God's Instead, Bowne postponed (and never solved) the problem by inferring imwill. mortality from this unworthiness of the finite. Treating the available evidence His
will 51

God. According to on the Philebus and the

as incomplete, he relied
53

on what

is

unavailable as evidence.

Raphael Demos's The Philosophy of Plato, which appeared while this chapter was being written, presents an interpretation of Plato which coincides with that
of the present writer
at

nearly every point.

IS

GOD FINITE?

339

losophy, the creative factors in the universe for Plato are:

God

(the

Demiurge

or cosmic Artisan), the Pattern (the

eternal ideal, corresponding to the Ideas in the earlier dia-

and the Receptacle (the primordial chaos of space, The actual world is caused by union of the forms (or Pattern) with the Receptacle. The motive of creation is the Good, the principle
logues),

discordant and disorderly motion).

of value.
It is

54

easy to see that the Pattern corresponds to

what we
But there

have called the formal aspect of The Given, while the
Receptacle
is

is

the content aspect of

The Given.
Plato
is

an

essential difference

between

Plato's

view and that which
a dualist or

has been developed in this chapter.
pluralist.

The

Receptacle (certainly) and the Pattern (prob-

ably) are external to God.

The

relations

their ontological status, are therefore obscure.

among them, and Much of this

and unrelatedness is removed by our hypothesis which enlarges the idea of God so that Pattern and Receptacle are both included in God. The Pattern becomes the system of conscious rational and necessary laws to which divine thinking conforms; the Receptacle becomes the spatial aspect of the stream of
obscurity

divine consciousness.

The
all

relatedness of

these factors

is

established by their presence within one personality
controls

which

and

directs

them

by

its

will to the

Good.

When

we

transform Plato's inspired and illuminating, but obscure,

dualism into a personalism, his dualism is transcended through a monism of purpose and personal identity; and
yet the pluralistic

phase

is

retained by the analysis into will
a society of inter-

and Given

as well as

by the concept of

acting selves and persons.

organic pluralism, owes
54

This personalized Platonism, which may also be called much to Hegelian influences. The
Demos, POP, 3-7,
is

the source of these ideas.

340
dialectic of thesis

IS

GOD FINITE?
antithesis, the principle of negativity,

and

and the union of
contributions.

finite

and

infinite

have been fructifying

A

rather remarkable parallel

the

Yoga

analysis into rajas, sattva,
05 and content.

energy, intelligence,
to will, reason,
§ 6.

is found in and tamas, which mean and materiality, and correspond closely

Perfection or Perfectibility?
of a finite

Along with the notion
of perfection.

God

goes a revised notion

Etymologically the word perfection means

completion; divine perfection would thus
pletion.

mean

ideal

com-

For

a theistic absolutist

who

denies the reality of

time and

who acknowledges

nothing given in

God which

his will did not

determine (save the laws of reason, which
it

his will approves or "ratifies"),

is

quite possible to conideality, perfection in
is

ceive of

God

as timelessly

completed

the literal sense.

Yet such "perfection"
as
it

as

far

above
be

human comprehension
and
If
it

is

above concrete imagination;
facts of experience as to

is

so

remote from the

incoherent (although doubtless consistent) with them.
the universal

human
it

longing for perfection

is

to be

coherently fulfilled

cannot be by the traditional concep-

tion of a timelessly perfected, completed
ever,

God.

When, how-

we

substitute for perfection the ideal of inexhaustible

perfectibility,

we have

a concept applicable to both

God

and man and adequate to man's religious need. Not optimism but meliorism; not completeness, but ever new tasks in accordance with the eternal principles of the Good;
not timeless perfection, but inexhaustible perfectibility in

which open for the cosmos and for every enduring person in it if the empirical evidence for a finite God has guided us toward
everlasting time

—these are
A

the perspectives

55

Kovoor T. Behanan, Yoga:

Scientific Evaluation

(New York: The Mac-

millan Company, 1937), 31-36.

—
IS
truth.

GOD FINITE?
anyone
to

341

The wearisomeness sometimes
life

ascribed to this per-

spective does not exist for

whom

the variety of

the values of
tion,

and the joys of creation and communicaeven amidst pain and struggle, are profoundly real.
cessation~~Tjf"~ali

/

For the Buddhist, perfection may be the
desire; but for

him who

values personality, cooperation

with the unshakable purposes of the Eternal Person and
joint responsibility for the creation of
trol of

new forms

of con-

The Given

elevate life to

its loftiest

ideal plane.

idea of a finite

That the proposed solution of the problem of evil and the God are an advance toward the truth seems

highly probable to the writer.
true or not,
it

Whether

these views

are

is

certain that philosophers will not fulfill

by following the popular mood of inGod. Until they wrestle more earnestly with the problem of God, the meaning of the whole, what they say of the parts is in danger of making a crazy patchwork far from the rational Pattern of Plato.
their true function

difference to

Bibliographical

Note
is

All of the bibliography of the previous chapter
present one.

relevant to the
refer-

The

reader

is

also referred to the

numerous

ences in the footnotes, especially in §§ 4 and 5 of Chapter X.

ELEVEN

THE PROBLEM OF

HUMAN PERSONALITY
§
i.

The Importance

of

Man

for Religion

ELIGION
ence.

is

a characteristically

human

experi-

As

far as
If

we know,

the lower animals have

no men, and if there existed only pure intelligences with no ideal save that of scientific knowledge, physics and mathematics would be as true for them as for men, but they would have no religion. They would experience no worship, no cooperative realization of values, no prayer, and no faith. -Religion no
religion.

there were

man's aspiration toward the source of his highest values^ and his sense of cooperation with and dependence on that source. Religion is man's concern about his own value and destiny. Hence every religion has required a conception of
is

man

(the religious subject) as well as of

God

(the religious

object).

No
§
2.

philosophy of religion can omit an investigapersonality.

tion of

human

Why Not Then
is

Begin with

Man?
may
well in-

If

religion

essentially

human,

the student

quire

why we

did not begin our philosophy of religion

After all, we know more about man we do about God and it might have been simpler to start with human personality. Yet these considerations are plausible without being conclusive. The most successful

with a study of man.
than

342

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
sciences

343

seem

to

ignored
ligious
is

man —physics and
experience
is

have been the objective ones that have chemistry, for example; and reas

objective in

its

original intent as
inter-

the sense experience

which physics and chemistry
unless
his

pret.
cal

Furthermore,
to

it is

impossible to arrive at a philosophi-

understanding of
his

man
to

we

consider

him

in rela-

tion

world and
is

God.

In any event, one's

starting point

not decisive in a philosophical investigation.
is

The main

thing

to include the

whole range of relevant
it

experience before

we

are through.

But there are special reasons which made
with

seem wiser

to follow the procedure of the text rather than to begin

human

personality.
is

In a philosophy of religion, the
as a religious being.
If

center of interest
is

in

man
in

there

no evidence of religion
at all.

human

life,

there

is

no phi-

losophy of religion
experience.

Therefore

we

did not begin with

a theory of personality, but rather with

man's religious

From

that experience

we

learned that the idea

of
of
to

some form is the highest religious affirmation man's value and destiny. Hence we proceeded directly the central problems of value and God, as the main topics
in
If

God

of philosophy of religion.

we had begun with human
to

personality,

our results

would have had
until our

remain very incomplete and tentative

view of the relations of

investigated.

In a sense, of course,

incomplete and tentative,

man to God could be all human thinking is and we may gain further light on
Yet the advantage of

God
all,

as

we

study man's personality.

beginning with

God

is

that in order to think about

God

at

problem of good-and-evil and the have been forced to take into account finiteness of God, we wide ranges of man's personal experience. Our method has,
especially about the

therefore, forced us from the start to be inclusive, objective, and hence philosophical. To have started with a view of

344

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

personality that omitted religious values and God would have been merely to survey the general psychology and philosophy of personality without advancing philosophy of religion one whit.

We

God
God.

as

it

is.

We

have plenty of psychology without need an understanding of what human
it

personality

means when

declares that

it

is

experiencing

§

3.

What
as

is

the Problem of Personality?

As soon
sonality? swers.

we
are

raise the question:

What

is

human
of

per-

we

confronted by a whole jungle
matters are

an-

Psychology and philosophy offer an embarrassment
Fortunately,
that

of riches.

somewhat

simplified

when we remember

many

psychological details about

personality are unrelated to a philosophy of religion.

Experi-

ments on the knee jerk or Weber's Law or conditioned reflexes are irrelevant to our understanding of man as a religious being and an experiencer of ideal values. In fact,
C. C. Pratt has stated that psychology has shed practically

no

on "the determinants of man's higher activities." send us to Shakespeare and Goethe rather than 1 If we to "literary psychology" for light on our problem. were to trust this psychologist, we might ignore most of
light

He would

the

work

of psychology without loss to philosophy of re-

ligion.

Exception would have to be

made

of psychology of
in

religion,

which we have already considered

Chapter

II.

The

reasons for the relative unimportance of

much

techself-

nical psychological

research in our field are almost
is

evident.

The

religious interest in personality

not an in-

terest in the sense

organs as such, the brain and nervous
conscious process or response to

system, or
stimulus.

any
It
is

isolable

rather an interest in the personality as a
of

1 C. C. Pratt, The Logic Company, 1939), 166-167.

Modern Psychology (New York: The Macmillan

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
whole, and in an evaluation of the ideals for which
2

345

it

is

striving.
is

Accordingly, the religious problem of personality
closer to philosophy than
it

much

is

to psychology.

It

concerns the philosophy of psychology or of personality.
In this chapter

we

shall deal chiefly

with philosophical pre-

suppositions and implications of psychology, although

mak-

ing free use of psychological data whenever they shed light

on the problem.
In order to illustrate the philosophical approach to personality, as distinguished

from the psychological,

let

us con-

sider very briefly the presuppositions of experiment, for the

psychologist relies chiefly on experiment, while the phi-

losopher
positions

is

chiefly

concerned with interpreting the presup-

and the results of experiment. Experiments do not occur in a vacuum; they are initiated, observed, and reported by a mind. Every experiment presupposes, therefollowing items: (1) a self or person, (2) the unity of the self during the entire experiment, (3) data of consciousness which are the observable aspect of the
experiment, (4) a purpose, (5) the validity of reason, (6) memory, (7) the experience of time, (8) the acknowledg-

fore, at least the

ment

of an objective world,
is

and (9)

society.
results,

3

In short,
is

if

any experiment

to

produce valid

it

necessary

that there be a unitary, purposive, rational, self-remembering

personality, interacting with

its

environment.

Just such a

personality

is

also

presupposed by religion.

Any
is

experi-

ment which seems
it

to question this personality
it

a "self-

refuting system," for

denies the very condition on which

depends for

its

validity.

But

this insight

is

far

from

solv-

ing either the psychological or the philosophical problem
of the nature of personality.
2

Let the reader
See Brightman,

recall

William James's definition of the

self as

"a fighter for

ends."
3

"The Presuppositions

of Experiment," Art. (1938).

346

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
§ 4.

Definition of Personality

One who is inclined to approach problems empirically may well define personality in terms of consciousness. Each one of us experiences his own consciousness; that
4

experience
else.

is

private

and can be
own.

literally

shared by no one
else

We

cannot inspect the consciousness of anyone
inspect our

as

we can
is

This
tell

may

be proved by the
off his

simple experiment of trying to

another person exactly

what

in his

mind.

Each person reads

own
is

con-

sciousness directly; he approaches that of others indirectly.

Even own,

if

he

is

as sure of the other's

thought

as

he

of his

it is

in a different

way.

To

be precise, he must infer

the consciousness of others

from

certain appearances in his

own

consciousness, either his sensory consciousness of the

other's

body or
5

his

language.

To

infer

more complex consciousness of the other's from our reference to the other's body,

as Watsonian behaviorists do, that the other person is a mere body and not a consciousness is as unreasonable as it would be to infer from the reference to language that the

other person

is

a

disembodied language.
a person.

Actually, our ex-

periences of body and of language lead to the conclusion
that the other
is

My mind

is

not alone.

I

am

an experient; there are other experients.
4

chology

This statement will strike some readers as untenable, for physiological psyis commonly regarded as more empirical than introspection. However,
is

the process of experiencing
situation (see

always a conscious process and the actual empirical
)

Chap. VII,

§

11, (4), (i)

is

what

a real empiricist

must build

on.

For such an empiricist, all objects other than present consciousness are hypothetical entities, deduced from it. The facts of physiological psychology are such hypothetical entities

Philosophy, 13(1938), 425-456, where the evidence of language There is, however, no reason for supposing that language alone

How

do we communicate

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
To
regard personality as consciousness
6

347

is not to deny the body or to minimize physiological psychology or behavioristic method. It is only to insist on the most fundamental

fact of experience,
It is

namely,

its

consciousness.

necessary to distinguish between Situations Experi-

enced and Situations Believed-in.
state of affairs.
less
it

A

"situation"

means any
is

No

situation

is

a Situation

Experienced unExperience

is

actually present in consciousness.
state of affairs.

given only as a conscious
is

To

experience
is

to be

aware.

A man
fire

cannot properly say that he

experiencing a
is

in his

house merely because the
fire

fire

going on; he experiences the

only

when

it

a perceptible difference to his conscious experience.
exactly, the
fire,

makes More

man

can never say that he

is

experiencing the

when perceptions of its odor or heat occur; yes, even when the fire burns his body, the Situation Experienced The fire is always a is excruciating pain, not actual fire. Situation Believed-in, no matter how painfully well-grounded the belief may be. The only Situation Experienced by anyone is his own consciousness. From this, if he is able to observe and reason
even
even in an elementary way, he
is

able to infer with varying
7

degrees of accuracy, the presence in his environment
fire, or, if

of

he be

religious, of the

God who
for
to be

is

called a con-

suming
belief,
6

fire.

The only

basis

we have
is

any knowledge,
in Situations

faith,

truth, or error,

found

In agreement with Whitehead's correct interpretation of Descartes's cogito ergo here used to

sum, in MT, 228. 7 Environment
but affects
as to
it

is

mean whatever
Hegel's

is

not

my
it,

conscious experience,
so for ex-

so as to produce observable changes in

make
is

its

very existence possible.

more generally, PhdnomenologU des Geistes,
or,

example,

not

my

conscious experience, no matter
is

how

often

I

read

it.

My

But the book affects my experience, and my experience could not be as it is without the book. For a further discussion (in other terms) of the problem of Situations Experienced and Situations Believed-in, let the reader consult the treatment of knowledge claims in Chap.
perience of the book

not the book

itself.

VI, Introductory, and of actual and hypothetical entities in Chap. VII,

§

11, (5), (iv).

348

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
Whatever
is

Experienced.
is

not in the Situation Experienced

a Situation Believed-in or Disbelieved-in

—for

example,

a person's brain, or the

bottom of the ocean, or God.
a self, a person, or

A

Situation Experienced

is

an experient,

because

it is

a self-experiencing

ing, choosing,

whole which includes thinkremembering, anticipating, and purposing,
and sensing.

as well as feeling

A

whole
are

self

includes

all

those

Situations

Experienced which

related
It
is
is

by

self-

identifying
for

memories and

anticipations.
its

true

that,

no longer a Situation Experienced. Now, that past has become a Situation Believed-in; but the belief that it was once a Situation Experienced by the experient may be well-grounded in
any present experient,
past

own

coherent interpretation of experience.

However, no portion of an experient's nervous system nor any part of his body has ever been or can be a Situation
Experienced by that experient.
example, the hand
is

When

I

see

my

hand, for

not

itself

actually in

my

consciousness.

The

whole within which there is observed a certain pattern of sense data. That pattern is part of a personal Situation Experienced; the hand
Situation Experienced consists of a
itself is a

Situation Believed-in.

Many

Situations Believed-in

we must

postulate to be actually there.

All such situations
itself inter-

belong in a universal interacting system which
acts to a greater or lesser

degree with

all

Situations Experi-

enced.

This distinction, once clearly made, helps to remove
of
s
self.

much
8

the

confusion

pervading

contemporary
It

philosophy.

The Situation Experienced is what the author The concept is close to many now in use.
and
to Royce's

has elsewhere called the

datum
field

corresponds to the
related to

of

attention, to James's stream of consciousness (although treated as a unified Gestalt),
to the specious present,

span of consciousness.

It is

White-

head's actual occasion and to Dewey's situation; but the former seems to be

more

narrow

in

its

scope than the total Situation Experienced, while Dewey's situation

includes,
biological

if

it

does not entirely consist
social

of,

Situations Believed-in,

found

in the

and

matrix of which he writes in LOG(i938).

Dewey

thus leaves

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

349

Truly radical empiricists should be the first to welcome the sharp distinction between actual experience and the beliefs
to

which

it

gives

rise.
is

They should
and

see that personal con-

sciousness alone

experience,

that all bodies, brains,

and gods are objects of belief. Many of the Situations Believed-in, and also many unknown situations, exert their energies on us; but only chaos ensues when we identify ourselves

with the energies that
affect
all

affect us.

My brain, the

stimuli

which

my
I

nervous system, the sun in the sky, and
to

God

are

essential

my

continued existence in

this

world.

But

perienced
being.
I

— am
am
I

—the
not

experient, the person, the Situation Ex-

not to be identified with what sustains

my
I

my

nervous system, the sun, or God.

am what

experience myself as being

—a conscious

self.

This radically empirical point of view, which takes
personality to be

my

my

consciousness,
is

is

also a religious point

of view, for religion

concerned with man's conscious exspirit,
is

perience of values, with man's
perience.

and with

religious ex-

The

goal of religion

the development of worthy

consciousness.

On
person
as a
it

this

foundation

we can

build our definition of per-

sonality
?

—the
9

quality of being a person.

What,

then,

is

a

Is

person?

any consciousness whatever to be regarded Supposing a paramecium to be conscious, is
Is

a

person?

the consciousness of an ant, a pig, a horse,

a dog, or

an ape personal?
The

These questions
all

necessitate a

the mental, the actual experience, in an orphanage for sterilized children of un-

known

parents.

Situation Experienced includes

of Santayana's essences,

and the concept of the Situation Believed-in agrees with Santayana's teaching that existence is not given, as well as with his doctrine of animal faith, with the qualification that animal faith is too narrow a basis for a well-grounded belief in existence. Santayana enjoys values, but excludes them as grounds of belief. The relation of our terminology to Lloyd Morgan's experienc/rag- and experienced remains to be
clarified.
9

See Brightman,

"What

is

Personality?"
is

Art.(i939), for a brief treatment.
a psychological

Gordon W.

Allport's Personality

the best

book on the subject from

point of view; see the footnote on p. 159.

350

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

The word self is used for any and every consciousness, however simple or complex it may be. A self is any conscious situation experienced as a whole. Each "empirical situation" is a self. All consciousness is
distinction in terminology.

self-experience; but self-experience

is

not properly called
unless the self

self-consciousness

(reflective consciousness)

in question has the special attribute of being able to think

about the fact that

it is

a self in addition to the fact that

it

experiences sensations and desires.
is

A

person

is

a self that

potentially self-conscious, rational,

and

ideal.

That
it

is

to

say,

when
its
is

a self

is

able at times to reflect

to reason,

and

to

acknowledge

ideal goals

on itself as by which

a self,

can

judge

There

the line

we call it a person. no reason on the basis of known evidence to draw sharply and say that only human beings are peractual

achievements, then

and horses seem to be at least elementary persons. But this consideration is of no vital importance to a philosophy of religion, for the very good
sons; pigs, dogs, apes,

reason that, as far as

we know, human
1"

persons are the only

ones

who

have religious experience.
Individual
persons;

The
variety
it

brief definitions of self

and person need
reveals
to

fuller ex-

planation.
of

psychology

us

a

great

and comparative psychology makes
if

probable that self-experience,

not reflective self-conlife.

sciousness, extends to the lowest

forms of animal

We

can barely surmise
cat feels to the

how

the consciousness of a dog or a
it;

animal that has
all

to conceive the consciousis

ness of a protozoon passes

our imagination; yet there

good reason
itself as a self.

to believe that every living

being experiences
pos-

The

various levels of selfhood and personality

merge
sible,
10

into each other

and defy

classification.

It

is

however, to indicate the range of these
question whether

levels
is

by not-

The

"subhuman" persons
is

are immortal

one which cannot

be answered, since sufficient evidence

not available.

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

351

ing the chief characteristics of the most elementary type of self that can be and contrasting the marks of this minimum
self

with the chief characteristics of
characteristics of a

a

person.

The
sible

minimum
be
listed

self,

the simplest pos-

consciousness,

may

tentatively

under eight
unified com-

headings, as follows: (1) Self -experience

—a

plexity of consciousness (Stern's unitas multiplex).

Every

item of consciousness

is

owned, and belongs
experiences, but only

to a whole.
selves.

There are no
Qualia

floating

— distinguishable qualities,
it

(2)

at least sense qualities

and
is

perhaps other qualities of feeling.

(3)

Time and

space.

All selves must necessarily experience time because this
a

world of process;

is

highly probable that some kind of
(4) Transcendence of
of the specious present

space-consciousness

is

also universal.

time and space.

The complexity

and

memory (however dim)
some
extent;

elevate every self above time to

space both by

and probably the humblest self transcends its ability to aim at distant spaces and by its
(such
as
its

nonspatial

experiences

unity).

(5)

Process

and conation. All selves are in constant process of change, which includes striving for ends (conation) to be a self
;

is

to experience a desire for future experience,
life.

if

only the

eating of food and the continuance of
of meaning.

(6) Awareness

The

simplest self treats
it is

its

experiences as signs

of further experience; thus of meaning.

in
is

an elementary way aware
also to refer to

To

feel
it

conation

an object.
pursuits

Sophisticated as

may

sound, the humblest paramecium
its

experiences objective reference in every one of

and avoidances. If only by "animal faith," it reaches beyond itself to something "meant" whenever it darts toward food. (7) Response to environment. Every self lives in an environment which is constantly stimulating it. A minimum self doubtless has no awareness of the causal relation or of reasoning processes, and so is not conscious of a difference

352

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
itself

between
leads
ence.
it

and

its

environment.

Yet

to

respond to the

effects of the

its "animal faith" world in its experi-

(8) Privacy.

Every

self is directly

experienced only
in this sense.

by

itself.

"The monads have no windows"
a

However,
its

minimum

self is

not aware of this property of
11

experience, since any understanding of the concept of

privacy presupposes reasoning processes.
If

we

contrast a

minimum

self

with a person,

we

find that

each of the eight characteristics just mentioned has been

developed to a higher
future plays a
the
self.

level,

(i) Self-experience

is

far

more complex and highly organized;

reference to past and

much

larger part in the present experience of

(2)

New

qualia emerge, such as feelings of moral

obligation, of aesthetic taste,

and

religious obligation,

which

come

to

be recognized

as

imperative norms.

(3)

The range

and space experience is vastly extended. (4) Timetranscendence is extended by the development of a more complex field of attention and of a richer and more accurate memory accompanied by recognition. The self of the present is thus identified with the self of past and future. Space-transcendence is increased by a multiplication of nonspatial interests in spiritual values and abstract ideas. (5) Conation rises to the level of free purposive self-control and
of time

control of environment.

The

self

desires;

the person

is,

within limits, freely selective and

critical of its desires.

(6)

Awareness of meaning becomes conceptual thought and reasoning. This has often been given as the unique attribute of man, but we now know that it is present in some degree among the apes and other forms of life. Reflective self-consciousness, as distinguished from mere self-experience, arises on this personal level. (7) The response to environment is
11

and ideal environment, and the responses are more freely selective rather than mechanical. (8) Although privacy is transcended by language and by understanding, it remains a fact that all communication is sent by and received in private experience; and developed persons respect the fact and the rights of privacy. Among these emergent traits of personality, the most important are the consciousness of imperative norms, freedom,

and

reason.

By reason

is

meant the power
all,

of testing truth-

claims by logical and empirical standards; the principles of

deduction and induction; and, above
synopsis).

the perception of

the relations between parts and wholes (analysis, synthesis,

Coherence, the principle of reason,
subject matter be the physical

is

identical

whether

its

world (Kant's

theoretical or speculative reason), the realm of values (cf.

Kant's practical reason, which
relations ("social reason").

is

the rational will), or social

The

consciousness of imperative

norms

man's experience of his destiny as obligation to pursue the ideal values; personality grows as these ideals are transformed into concrete value experiences. Freedom,
is

as

Driesch has well

said,

is

the

power

of saying yes or saying

no (Jasagen, Neinsagen) to given experiences. In a word, freedom is the power of choice. Reason, imperative norms,
and choice enter into every higher personal experience,
cially into religion.

espe-

"I will pray

with the understanding,"

"love your enemies," and "choose you this day
12

whom

ye

will serve" are typical religious expressions of these three

principles of personality.
§ 5.

The Unity and

Identity of Personality

For various reasons, the unity and identity of personality
are of special importance to religion.
12
13 13

true identical unity through all the changes in his experience,
is impossible. Moral growth, on the postulate that I am responsible to myself for my past purposes and contracts; yet if I am not the one who entertained those purposes and made those

then spiritual development
for example, rests

contracts,

I

experience neither responsibility nor continuous
I

growth.
all

Unless

am

one person, identical through change,
irrational, especially if the

hope for immortality becomes

apparent unity which
personality

we

experience be traced wholly to
14

physiological causes, materialistically interpreted.
if
is

Finally,

not a true identical unity,

it

is

absurd to

regard

God

as a person,

The problem

of the unity

whether infinite or finite. and identity of personality may
substantialist,

be approached from the standpoint of four different theories,

namely, the epiphenomenal, the analytic, the

and the organic. According to the theory of epiphenomenalism (which is held by some psychologists and philosophers), consciousness
is

to be regarded solely as effect, never as cause.
is

It

is

the

end term of physiological processes and
exclusively as a physiological product.
identity
it

to be

understood

may

appear to have

is

illusory.

that of brain
least
first

and nervous system, two weaknesses may be pointed out is that our physiological knowledge
is,

Hence any unity or The real unity is not of consciousness. At
in this view.
is

The

not sufficient to

warrant so sweeping an assertion.

The second and more

fundamental one
14

as

we have

previously pointed out, that

must be due to a cause beyond man. The where that cause operates. If the nervous system is known to be material substance, independent of any mind, then personality is an "epiphenomenon" and its unity is only that of a shadow. But if the nervous system is what idealism and theism take it to be, namely, an expression (or creation) of mind, then the dependence of human personality on its nervous system is an instance of the dependence of human mind on cosmic mind. The choice between these two explanations will ultimately be determined by the relative coherence of
unity of
is

The

human

personality

nervous system

the area

each with

all

the empirical facts of personal experience.

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
all

355

experimentation presupposes a unified and identical

self

as observer

and interpreter of the experiment.
it is

Physiological

psychology, therefore, in so far as
theory

experimental, presup-

poses the unitary self which epiphenomenalism denies.
is,

The

therefore, self-contradictory.

analytic theory, which might also be called relational, on the method of analysis as the ultimate procedure of both science and philosophy. The most famous example of
rests

The

analytic theory of the self

is

the associationist psychology
others.

developed by David
this

Hume

and many

According
is

to

view, the complex structure of

mind

revealed by

analysis to consist of simple elements, either sensations (impressions, as

Hume

called

them) or neutral
15

entities

(as

modern

analytic realism views them).

It is
if

obvious that

the unity and identity underlying mind,

this

view

is

true,
its

must be found, not
simple elements.
this theory.
First,

in personality as a whole, but in

Two
it is

chief objections are urged against

highly improbable, both psychologi-

logically, that the "elements" of mind enjoy any and continuous existence apart from the self to which they belong, and even more improbable that (purely subsistent) neutral entities can account for any actual existence whatever. Secondly, important and necessary as is analysis, it is not a method suited to the discovery and interpretation of the properties of wholes as such. The unity and

cally

and

separate

identity of personality

may

well be not elements or relations

of elements, but pervasive properties of each personality as a

whole.

The

substantialist point of view, following the

thought of

Aristotle and the scholastics, rests on the postulate that every
real object
is

a substance, either material or spiritual,
is

that substance

a necessary category, although not

and an object
Since

of sense perception nor discoverable in consciousness.
15

See Brightman, ITP, Chap. VI and Lexicon.

356

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
is

substance

other than experience, the spiritual substance

is

called a transcendent soul.

Epiphenoraenalists deny

spirit-

and usually declare that all real substance is material. Analysts deny the category of substance entirely, holding that analysis reveals no such element as "substance"
ual substance,
in addition to observed properties.

Substantialists point to

the inadequacy of both epiphenomenalism and analysis, and declare that their view
native.
is

the necessary and only valid alter-

For

it,

the unity and identity of personality are

found neither

in the brain

nor in the elements of conscious-

ness but in the soul as a spiritual substance,

which underlies and produces the phenomena of consciousness. Although the theoretical argument for this position apit.

pears strong, there are cogent objections to
place,
if

In the

first

soul substance as distinguished

meant by this transcendent from consciousness, one receives no more than a pronoun or two for answer. The soul, we are told, is "that which" supports or causes consciousness. As distinguished from matter, it is a spiritual "that which," and it is equipped with the faculty or power
one asks exactly what
is

of

doing whatever appears in consciousness
thinkers regard this as an

as

its

deed.

Many

empty concept and,
if

in fact,

reject substance as a

mere

abstraction lacking any concrete

definition.

In the second place, even
alleged,
it is

there

is

such a sub-

of no philosophical or religious importance in interpreting personality. All that we need for the philosophical understanding of personality is the ex-

stance as

is

perienced reality and unity of consciousness and
tion with
its

its

interac-

environment.

To add

to consciously experiis

enced unity and identity the further unity of a substance
philosophically to create a needless hypothesis.
it

Religiously,

is

only our conscious experience of ourselves as realizers
is

of value that

of any importance;
is

what happens

in a supuntil con-

posed soul substance

not of religious

moment

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
scious experience of

357
to

God

occurs.

And
its

if

a soul

were

be

immortal, the only possible value in
lie

immortality would

in

its

conscious experiences, not in the persistence of a

substance.

The

traditional theory of substance seems un-

empirical and otiose.

There remains what
term "organic"
sonality.
is

is

called the organic theory.

The

not used here as referring to the bodily
usually called self psychol-

organism, but rather as pointing out the wholeness of per-

The

organic theory

is

ogy, and posits an

immanent

self as

distinguished

from

a

That is to say, the self of the organic whole of conscious experience, whose parts have no existence in isolation from the whole and whose nature is to be conscious as a whole. This view of the self
transcendent soul.
is

view

a living

is

closely related to Gestalt psychology, purposive psychology,

and

so-called "personalities."
is

According

to

it,

the unity of
its

the self or person
consciousness,
tion in
its

the wholeness and indivisibility of
is

identity

the experience of self-identifica-

immediate experience and in processes of memory This view recognizes the interaction of the unitary personality with the bodily organism and thus finds a partial truth in epiphenomenalism; it insists on the need of analysis for understanding but supplements analysis

and

anticipation.

by synopsis;
asserted.

it

grants that substantialism
it

is

right in seeking

for a unity, but holds

to

be

wrong

in the unempirical unity

The

chief

arguments against the organic theory

are, first, those in

favor of the opposing views and, secondly,
reference to this second point, two re-

the assertion that the self cannot be found by experimental
psychologists.

With

marks may be made. First, if the methods of experimentalists are directed toward objective phenomena of behavior, as
they usually are,
self
it

is

obvious that they are not looking for

and hence naturally will not find it. Secondly, we the may repeat that the unity and identity of the self are em-

358

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
presuppositions of every experiment.
I

pirical

If

I

do not

experience myself as one identical mind,

cannot conduct

any experiment. Therefore the organic view of self psychology is the most tenable theory of personality, precisely from the experimental standpoint. In Chapter VII attention was called to the datum self (or
the empirical situation) as the source of
in society,
all

evidence for belief

the world, or God.

It is

evident, however, that

the actual experience of ourself

moment
situation

is

far

which we enjoy at any from being our whole self. The empirical
self;
it

is

always a

is

an experience of wholeness

and

identity, of

complex

unity, of purpose,

and of awarecontains signs
anticipation

ness of an environment.
of a larger self to

But every datum
it

self

which

belongs

;

memory and

assert the identity of the present

person with a person that

has been and a person that will be.
person,
is

Thus the whole self, or which is never present to itself in one single experience, but which is aware of its identity and wholeness by means of its backward-looking memories and its forward-looking purposes. The whole
a total conscious process
self,

or person, then, consists of
is

all

the conscious experience
all

that

or has been or will be present in

the empirical

situations that constitute the history of the person.

The

unity of personality, therefore,

is

the unity of consciousness;

personality includes consciousness only,

and does not include

any of

its

environment
it.

—

—

physiological, subconscious, or social

as part of

§

6.

Personality and

its

Environment
and
its

The distinction between ment is not always made so
graph, but the distinction
sary
if
is

a personality

environ-

sharply as in the preceding paraa useful one; in fact,
it is

neces-

we

are to have
is

any clear concept of personality.
;

The

conscious person

not the brain

the Situation Experienced

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
is

359

not to be confused with

its

cause in any Situation Believedis

in.

Nevertheless, the person

in a constant process of de-

pendence on and interaction with its environment. The action of the environment is not dependent on the person's
being conscious of
it.

A
is

person

is

usually not conscious

of his brain, unless he

reflecting

usually conscious of the sun.

on physiology; nor is he But brain and sun are en-

vironing causes which incessantly afreet his consciousness,

and without which (in this world) it could not exist. Taking the conscious person as our point of reference, we may describe its environment as (1) biological, (2) physical, (3) social, (4) subconscious, (5) logical and ideal, and (6) 16 metaphysical. ( 1 ) The biological environment is the brain and nervous system, which stand in immediate causal and interactive relations with the person; also the whole system
of living beings in organic nature.

(2)

The
social

physical envi-

ronment

is

inorganic nature

—the earth, the
(3)

air,

the sun; in

short, the physical universe.

The

environment

whose individual or group activities are mediated to us by the physical and biological environment, and perhaps also by telepathy. (4) The subconscious consists of those conscious processes which are connected with our organism and from time to time affect the normal datum self without being actually present in that self. We call them conscious because the evidence indicates
consists of all the other interrelated persons

that they are in themselves processes of conscious sensation,
desire, or

even reasoning;

we

also call

them subconscious
total

because they are not experienced as an integral part of the
conscious

datum

self

and

so they are
17
it.

environment of the

person, rather than part of
:6 See the fuller discussion in
17

In quite another sense

we

The

subconscious

is

in

Brightman, POI, 25-28. one sense nearer to being

part

of

the

person

than any other environmental factor, because it is a series of conscious processes which almost always (perhaps always) accompany the person as satellites accompany a planet, yet act on the person more intimately than the tidal action

360

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
speak of the logical
entities,

may
in

and

ideal

environment.

(5)

Logical and ideal

although not causes in the sense

which physical objects are, certainly enjoy a subsistence of some sort beyond our experience of them, and so may
be called environmental factors.
(6)

The metaphysical

en-

vironment

is

the total reality on

which we

are dependent.

Reasons have been given in the previous chapter for defining
the eternal, controlling metaphysical

power as a finite God. mentioned aspects of environment may all be viewed as instances of God's control of The Given. The sixth is God and his creation as a whole. Although from the points of view of experience and knowledge all of these environing factors are hypothetical

The

five previously

entities,

not actually present in the

datum

self

but only be-

lieved-in
is

and referred-to, our reasons for believing that there an environment on which our very existence depends, and with which we stand in constant interaction, are so
ls
it.

cogent that hardly anyone seriously denies
epiphenomenalist.

Two

ex-

treme views have been advanced: the Leibnizian and the
Leibniz
held
It
is

that
active

the

monad

(the

person) "has no windows.''

from within, but

nothing from without can
is

affect

due

to a pre-established

it. The seeming interaction harmony among monads. On

this view,

persons are causes, but not

effects.
is

nalists

hold that personal consciousness

entirely

Epiphenomean effect
power.
effects,

of the nervous system,
fact

and lacking

in all causal

The
both

seems to be that persons are both causes and

of any moon; but in another sense the subconscious is more definitely excluded from the person than is biological and physical nature, for our knowledge of it Yet even the so-called direct observation of physical is more clearly inferential. nature is no more than a personal experience which leads to the belief that an environment is present. For any experient, his subconscious consists of Situations Believed-in, which are no part of Situations Experienced by him. 18 For a concise statement of the inadequacy of the point of view of the datum Pratt's arguments in PR are a good recent self, see Hegel, Encyclop'ddie, sec. 71.

statement of the case for interaction.

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
active

361

and

passive; able to choose

of bodily behavior, yet dependent
their existence.

and initiate certain systems on the environment for

Like science and philosophy, religion accepts this dependence of man on his environment. In fact, Schleiermacher regarded the consciousness of dependence as the most characteristic trait of religion. The difference between
a religious and a nonreligious interpretation of this relation

does not consist in any fantastic denial of physiological facts;
it

consists, rather, in the

metaphysical view of the environ-

ment
and

that

is

adopted.

their values
as

regarded
religion
is

in

If the environment on which persons depend and out of which they grow be itself unconscious and valueless, then no

possible except such

humanism

as

can survive the

wreck of any objective basis for faith. If, on the other hand, the world of nature and its metaphysical ground be regarded as at least under the control of conscious, value-seeking personality, then man's dependence on and interaction with his environment may be viewed as cooperation with God.
§ It is 7.

The Reality

of the Spiritual Life

not the bare existence of conscious selves in the uniis

verse that

the source of religion

and the evidence for

a

God;

it is

rather the fact that there are persons

—selves who
counttitle

are able to develop ideal values.
facts of social,

One who

confronts the

economic, and political injustice in the world,
futilities of

to say

nothing of the private miseries and
19

less individuals, is

impressed with the honesty of the

of

Henry Churchill King's book,
the Spiritual Life.

The Seeming
all

Unreality of

Yet over against
is

that

makes man's
to

higher values seem unreal

the fact that they have survived

despite the injustices of nature

and man's inhumanity

man.

Wherever humanity

exists,

there moral, scientific,
York, 1908.

19 Published

by The Macmillan Company,

New

362

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

philosophical, artistic, and religious ends are sought. Far from being unreal, spiritual ideals are what make men human, as well as akin to the divine. Man's desperate wickedness is often due to the inaccessibility of precisely these ideal values, or to the unjust distribution of the means of access to them. Without these spiritual values man would be depersonalized and dehumanized; he would be a mere brute. For all their seeming fragility, the spiritual values are the only clue to any real meaning in history or in in-

dividual
it

life.

To

use the language of
20

German

philosophy,

is

spirit

(Geist) that gives

meaning
to

to nature or finds

meaning
beit that

in spite of nature;
is

quote an authority:

"How-

not

first

natural; then that

which is spiritual, but that which is 21 which is spiritual." These words sum-

marize the development of personality.
personality
is

A

self is

given; a

achieved.

Personality

is,

of course, achieved

on many
flicts,

different levels,

through sharp and prolonged conthrough
sin, forgiveness,

through

dialectical struggles,

and redemption.

But

it is

the reality of the spiritual values

that measures the evils as well as the goods of personality. Pessimism could not even be thought of if it were not seen that the true destiny of man was the achievement of values

worthy of him.
§ 8.

Personality

Human

and Divine: Likenesses
God.
In view of the

The term

personality has been applied in the course of

our discussions both to
personality,

man and

to

differences of opinion that prevail with reference to divine
it

is

of the utmost importance that the

term be

used precisely.

In previous chapters arguments for and

against supposing

God

to

be a person have been considered.
is

We
- 1

are

now

ready to explain more fully exactly what
that

meant by saying
Saint Paul in
1

God

is

a person.

Let us consider

first

20 See Paul Tillich in Dessoir,

PEG, 779.

Cor. 15:46.

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
the respects in
similar, then the respects in

363

which human and divine personality which they differ.

are

(1) All persons,

human

or divine, in order to be persons

mar\s of personality listed in § 4 of this chapter. To summarize: God and man both enjoy complex self-experience, qualia (including ideal norms) which low grade selves are not conscious of, a wide range of temporal and spatial consciousness, time-transcendence and
must share
in the essential

space-transcendence,

free

purposive

self-control,

rational

awareness of meaning, free response to environment, and
privacy of consciousness.
sence of personality.
idea of

All these
of

traits
is

belong to the

es-

None

them

inconsistent with the

God

(as empirically derived) except perhaps privacy;

but, since privacy

means only

that

no one

else

can experience

a person's consciousness directly, as he can himself, the in-

consistency

is

only apparent.

would

lay claim to experiencing

Only the most fanatical mystic God from within as God

experiences himself.
interaction,
selves.

And human privacy is compatible with communication, and knowledge of and by other Privacy, therefore, is consistent with what the idea
requires.

of

God
(2)

No

other person,

human
It is

or divine, can be perceived

by the senses, but must be inferred from the data of our
personal consciousness.

own

debatable what

we do

perceive

by sense

—whether we perceive only our own sensuous conit is

sciousness or external material objects;

not debatable that

consciousness

is

imperceptible to sense.

No

one ever had a

sense perception of thinking, or feeling, or choosing, or even
of sensing
itself.

No

sense quality

which we experience can

possibly be regarded as a direct awareness of another's consciousness.
self

From

sense data of our

own

personal

datum

we

infer the presence of other persons,

human

or divine.

We

have no direct sensuous evidence of either human society or divine personality; both can be affirmed only as

364

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
not see other persons;

perience.

on interpretation of our exWe do we think them as inferences from our perceptions. For us they are hypothetrational objects of belief based

ical entities.

This fact

is

related to the space-transcending

attribute of all persons.

We

think a space world.
space

Ulti-

mately, for the theist and the idealist, minds are not in a
space independent of them, but
experience.
(3) All persons,
all
is

in

minds

as their

human

or divine, possess an active will

and hence of the organization of expepower a person could not pursue ideal norms, nor could he direct his life by reason. Without it he would be a thing rather than a person. (4) But every person, human or divine, has experiences which his will does not produce, but finds. It is patently true that man's will confronts given factors in his heredity, his sense experience, and his rational nature. If our view
(a
of choice
rience).

power

Without

this selective

of the finiteness of

God
it

is

correct, the divine will also finds
it

given content which
direct

did not create but which

has to

and

control.

deals
§

may
9.

be called

The experiences with which The Given.

will thus

Personality

Human

and Divine: Differences

In spite of the numerous resemblances which

we have

found between

human and

divine personality, their differ-

ences are equally important.

In one sense, their differences

may be
ferences

said to be infinite, since

man's

life

has a beginning in

time, while God's has neither beginning nor end.

The

dif-

which we

shall discuss include those entailed

by the

idea of a finite

God which we

developed empirically.

(1) The divine personality (as was just said) is eternal and wicreated. That something must be unbegun follows 22 If there had ever from the principle ex nihilo nihil fit.
22

"Nothing

is

made

out of nothing."

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
been a

365

state in which there was nothing, then that state would have continued forever. It is impossible for our imagination to grasp unbegun duration, but the failure of our

As

overcome by the necessity of rational thought. is anything now, so surely there must always have been something. The postulate of our philosophy
imagination
is

surely as there

unbegun and unending, is the divine personality. This earth, and the life on it, had a beginning; the divine personality is the unbegun source of all beginnings. Those who deny an eternal divine personality have to show that the postulation of an eternal unconscious force, entity, or complex of forces or entities could explain the properties and the development of the conscious empirical situation, which is the being of each one
of religion
23

is

that the ever-enduring reality,

of us, better than could our postulate of an eternal personality.

The

postulate of personality has
its

its

great advantage

over alternative hypotheses in
cretely the

ability to interpret con-

combination of form, content, and

activity

found

in every experience

and

in every object

which we experience
entities

or acknowledge to be real. positivism

The

propositions of logical
of

neorealism
life

may may

account for form; the neutral

describe content; concepts like energy or

may

refer to activity; but only concrete personal con-

sciousness unites form, content,

and

activity in

an actually

experienced whole.
contrast with every

Hence we

are justified in postulating

divine personality as the eternal and uncreated reality, in

human
8,

personality,

which has

a begin-

ning in time.
(4)) in the divine personality is coeternal with the divine will as an integral aspect of the
(2)
(see §

The Given

divine personality.
23

In man,

The Given

has to be explained

Unending, because
is

end)

as

a cause without any effect (which would be an absolute unreasonable as an effect without a cause (which would be an absolute

beginning).

366

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

as prior to his birth and therefore coming from some source beyond him. In God, The Given cannot be regarded as coming from some external source without supposing an

incoherent ultimate dualism in the universe; nor can

it

be

regarded

as willed

by

God

without compromising the eternal
a

subsistence of logic as well as the coherence of the divine
will.

We,
any

therefore,
if

have

choice

between

consistent

agnosticism (which
late

thoroughly consistent will not postufinitism.

God

at all)

and consistent
it

Acceptance of

this finitism

makes

as

unreasonable to ask,

"Whence The

Given?"
of
its

as to ask,

"When

did eternity begin?" or
is

"Who

made God?"
changes in
sonalities.
its

Divine personality
content as arise

not dependent for any
itself,

content on any power external to

except for such

from the

choices of other peris

But no other personality
their existence

eternal,

hence

all

others (3)

depend for

The

divine person has, in

on the divine will. contrast with man, ?io body

and
is

especially

a

God means

no nervous system. The postulate that there all real energy in the universe is the will

of conscious personality,

and

that the

human

nervous system
if it is itself,

can be a cause of
its

human

consciousness only

in

inner being, a conscious reality.

The view

that nervous

systems are systems within the divine personality, rather than
separate consciousnesses or complexes of conscious "monads,"
is

supported by the unity of the system of physical nature as

well as by the evidence that a nervous system is a divisible complex and not a true unity. Only personality, with its
experiences of self-identification,
is

a true, indivisible unity.

The

divine personality

is

the locus and the divine will the

energy of the whole physical universe, including the
nervous system.
Metaphysically, personality
is

human

not caused

by nervous system, but nervous system is caused by personality that is, by the personality of God. The evolution

—

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
of nervous systems
personality in
its
is

367

part of the cosmic process of the divine

control of

The Given.

This has (4) been presupposed under point (2). The concept of creation is difficult but unavoidable. Whether one is a theist or an
atheist or

The

divine person creates other persons.

an agnostic or a skeptic, one must acknowledge the
novelties
is

fact

emerge in the evolutionary process. At one time there was no Goethe; then Goethe came into being. Whatever may be said of
that

Evolution

creative.

his biological origin,

it

cannot reasonably be maintained

that Goethe's personality, his actual conscious experience,

had any sort of actual being in the world before Goethe began to be. When he was born, a new person was created. At one time in the evolutionary process on this earth, there were doubtless no persons, but only elementary selves. Before that, there were no individual selves at all, but perhaps only the ongoing of inorganic matter (which we view metaphysically as a phase of God's

own

conscious personality).

But

it

cannot be said that selves were
It

made

out of matter and
that

persons out of selves.
evolution creates

must rather be acknowledged new beings and new kinds of being.
is

On

our view, evolution
controlling
as

God's will in action, imaginatively
creating such qualities and beings

The Given and

can be created under the given limitations.

Among

the

creations of

God

are

human

personalities with
is

their ex-

perienced

traits.

That they

are creations
is

novelty; that they are other than

coherences which ensue
all its

God when human
is

shown by their shown by the inas
literally

consciousness, with

ignorance and limitation,

thought of

part of a divine consciousness
limits.

which transcends human

(5)

The

divine person undoubtedly has types of experius.

ence unkjiown to

Possibilities of

such experience are

—
368

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

hinted at by our knowledge of infrared and ultraviolet rays.

There are energies unperceived by us; there are countless gaps in our knowledge of the physical world, of the realm of values, of the social realm, and of ourselves. In these gaps there is no reason to suppose that there are no surprises or novelties now utterly unknown and unimagined. Yet, however great the varieties of divine experience

may

be, there

is

no adequate empirical or rational ground for asserting that there is anything in God which is not experience. Although this statement is regarded by some as anthropomorphic, the burden of proof lies on those who assume existences which by their very nature are excluded from being in experience Why such entities should be supposed or what it at all. means to suppose them remains a mystery. There is enough
mystery implied in
real experience; mysteries

should not be

multiplied beyond necessity.
(6)

The
is

divine person alone

is

completely a?id perfectly

personal.

Man

is

only fragmentarily conscious.

No human

being

conscious of his

own whole

self, to

say nothing of

Man's consciousness is dimmed by weariness and and is interrupted by sleep and by death although, as it is resumed after sleep, so it may be resumed after death. In contrast with man's consciousness, God's is uninterrupted, inclusive of his whole personality, fully and immediately conscious of the whole physical universe, aware of and consciously cooperating with all persons other than himself, foreseeing all of the future that can be foreseen, and planning for all contingencies. So vast a consciousness almost paralyzes our imagination, and leads even a wise thinker like }. B. Pratt to infer that the sustaining of such an overwhelming range of consciousness is too great a task to be assigned even to a God. Yet a God must be superhuman and must be sufficient to account for the entire universe. The inability of our imagination to picture God an eternal
the whole world.
illness,

—

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
spiritual personality

369

— does not
§

deter our
2i

mind from

think-

ing him.

The

sublimity of

God

is

one of the perpetual

sources of worship.

We
debase

have asserted in

8 that there are likenesses
§

between
dif-

human and
ferences.

divine personality; in
critics

9

we have found

Some

of theism hold that the likenesses
level,

God

to the

human

whereas the differences are

so great that

we
is

cannot even

call

God

a person.
is

The
rich

reply

of the theist

that the concept of personality

and

meaningful enough to include within its realm all beings from the humblest and most elementary personal creature The reader will to the supreme and eternal cosmic person. decide for himself which interpretation is the truer. The
least that

can be said

is

that personalistic theism

is

an hy-

pothesis

which

interprets

experience and

its

implications

without contradiction.
Bibliographical

Note

The
ical, is

literature of personality,

both psychological and philosoph-

so extensive that even the 3341 items in Roback's bibliog-

raphy, BCP(i927), were far from exhausting the material available in 1927; and almost as many items again have appeared since that date. very few representative selections will be made

A

for our purposes.

The most useful current text in general psychology is Vaughan's GP(i939), which is concrete and accurate. Boring's HEP (1929) affords needed orientation on the history of experimental psychology. The logic of psychology is suggestively, although inadequately, examined in Pratt, LMP(i939). A survey of the elements of the problem is found in Brightman, ITP(i925), 166-211, with a selected bibliography, 372-373. Fundamental issues are ably analyzed in Moore and Gurnee, FP (1933). The best and most comprehensive psychology of personality
is

Allport,
little

PER (1937).
book on the philosophy of personality
is

A
21

valuable

Pratt,

See Kant's discussion of the sublime in his Critique of Judgment.

370

PROBLEM OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
Pratt develops his views, including a brief discussion

MS (1922).
he

PR (1937), 220-334, wnere mind-body problem, and the finiteness of God. The problem is discussed from the standpoint of philosophy of religion in Brightman, PR (1934), more fully in Laird, PTS(i9i7), and most thoroughly in Tennant, PT(i928, 1930),
of Brightman's standpoint, in his later
treats the self, the

especially Vol.

I.

Of

special interest

Hocking, Art. (1927).
Art. (1939)

may

the article on "Mind and Near-Mind," Brightman, Art.(i93i), Art.(i932) and also be consulted.
is
:!

,

—

TWELVE

THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN
PURPOSE
§
i.

Persons as Purposers

N the previous chapter persons have been defined
as conscious selves capable of

reasoning and valu-

ing.

Selves that can seek food without a thought

of anything other or better than food are not persons.

Thus we have

established a level of purpose as the

from persons. Persons are and purposers of rationality and value. There are, of course, experiences which are not purposes. Mere awareness of sense qualities, of space and time relations,
criterion for distinguishing selves
essentially purposers,

or of logical necessity,
substantially
all

is

not in

itself

purpose.
sort

But, as
of

psychologists

agree,

some

pur-

pose

almost always

accompanies our nonpurposive con-

so that in almost every conscious complex unpurposed elements such as have been mentioned are always attended by some striving or conation or desire or
sciousness,

plan.

A

wish to give or to divert attention, a longing
alter the

to

maintain or to

present state of consciousness

something of the nature of purpose is present in all consciousness which is not mere neutral indifference. Whether this state ever occurs is debatable. If a conscious being continued
permanently in that
1 It
is

state, it

would not be
is

a person.

1

In his
is

questionable whether Nirvana
all

such a

state.
it

Nirvana certainly
to

a

conquest o£

desire for selfhood.

But whether 37i

is

be regarded as the

372

THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN PURPOSE
Persons are selves

oft-quoted phrase, William James calls selves "fighters for
ends."

who may become

fighters for ideal
is

ends, pursuers of good, avoiders of evil.

Some end

sought
it

by

all

normal human consciousness.
is

Whatever

else

may

be, all personal living
§
2.

purposing.

Religion as Concern About Purpose
is,

Pervasive as purpose
ests in

not

all

human

interests are inter-

purpose.

Science "abstracts"

from purpose; the pure
to ignore all purposes

physicist does not investigate the bearing of physical laws

on human purpose.
except that of

His purpose

is

knowing

the laws of matter and motion.

The
is

technologist or engineer applies the results of physics

to the achieving of practical purposes;

but his chief interest

not in the inherent value of the purpose so

much

as in

the

means

of realizing

it.

Religion, on the other hand,

is

primarily concerned about

purpose.

Religion asks, with the Westminster Shorter Cateis

chism,

"What
is

the chief end of

man?"

To

raise this

question

to

emphasize the connection between value and

personality as the

Purpose

is

that concrete personal experience

two fundamental concepts of religion. which aims at

the production and conservation of values

—

at axiogenesis
is

and
in a

axiosoteria as

we have

called them.

Religion

faith

divine

axiogenetic and

axiosoteric

power

—a

super-

human

purposer of value.
a cosmic

A God
3

that

is

merely a cosmic

power or
or value.

mathematician
this

Only when

comes a
conquest of
is

setter of goals
all

is of no religious interest power or this mathematician beand a cooperator with man in the